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OBSEllVATIONS 




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THE NORT 



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EDWARD V. FOLLARiX 






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OBSERVATIOSiS 



IN 



THE NORTH 




.11 m Fiiiii 



r.v 



EDWARD A 



'pollard. 



R I Cum ox L: 

W. AIRES, CORNER NINTH AND MAIN STREETS. 
' 18 6 5'. 






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l'-liEFATOr.V. 



'il'.'ii writer ^v.l^ c;i|iUii-eJ by iLc- (.lifinitis of his Mu\iuy, in^gj/jf/gi^i y to V,n- 
rope. A bnel' record ul' his captivity may afford oa o>:hibiiioi> ol' iiniv.i iispcct- 
!' the war, \Yhich nvc, iudccJ, the most hiterestiug part of ii'- liiNi'ny : uud what 
he observed in an iutoWal of parole, extending over several luumlK-, in which 
tiiue he Imd ilio opportimity of visiting the prlneipal cities of the North, and 
• obtaining au lu>!ight into Vankee politics and socieiy, may have a value to those 
jiiauy persons iu the Confederate States wlio desire to know the real temper. and 
J oliiieal design.-; ul' the North. 

,Vo one enu justly charge the writer with attempt :it, Kuy bas-c gid,tilication ia 
iibel or abuse in the following pages. He leaves sucli re.-^ouices <>^ revenge u> 
the ba.ser of his eucniies, and he clialleuges every man who re-;pccts the freedom 
wnd honesty of literature, to .say whether in these pages he lias been inscusibU- 
•■veu to one glimpse of kindness in his prison, or has done more, on any occa- 
s'ltV'T, than roftisc for interest or eonvouienec, to compromise TheTiji-j ji. 



ii 



( ' X TENT S 




CJIAPTEll I. 

I'AGE, 

Itunning the Blockude. — The "Greyhound." — Passini; t!ie !!!ockaJe Lines.— 
The Capture. — Yankee Courtesy. — Off Fortress Monroe. ..» » 

CHAPTER II. 

I'liriosities o! lhf> VAukce Blockade. — Correspondence widi T-ord liv^Wff^c K 

(,'IIAPTEll III. 

.V week in Boston. — Inlroduction to the I'nited States .Marshal. — A Fugitive 
dlave. — In the Streets of Boston: Two Spectacles. — A Circle of Secessionists 
in the " Hiib of the I'niverse." 2." 

CHAPTER IV. 

• 'onimitment to Fort Warren. — Ilorrours of the Yankee Bii.=tile. — Torture of "A 

Brutal Villain. ■■ — A Letter to Secretary Welles...^ 32 

CIIA1>TJ^R \'. 

Journal Notes in Prison. — rt-ecious Tributes of Sympathy. — I'ortrait of the Van- 
kee. — A New Lugland Shepherd. — Sufferings and Befiections. — Fonrth of July 
in Fort Warren , 40 

CITAPTER \[. 

.lournal Notes Continued. — I<ife in the Casemates. — iloTV the Yankees Treat For- 
eigners. — Southern "Aristocracy.'" — Friftnds in Boston. — Massachusetts 
" r'hivalrv." — " Have we a (iov«rnment? " i 4(; 



vi COXTENTS. 

CHAPTER VJI. 

Episodes in Pri'-'u. — .1 r\)u,u:.-il in Ibu Casemates. — An Att.caipt to Ksespc 

CHAPTER VIII. 

fourual Notes. — My AtiV.ir wiili Lord Lyons Eudetl. — The Niagara Falls Bubble, 
('■iraforting Word". — Mov Dying Prisonera are TreaU'd 



CHAPTER IX.. 

-lournal Noies (.^ontiuucd. — A Yankee's Confession: Confederate Civilization.— 

A " Map of Busy Lif« " in Boston. — Sickness imd iletiections in Frisoji : * 

i^eniftle I'tiildiop^;: ok tlie War „... 



CHAPTER X. 

'.hit of Prison. — My Ptirole. — My Boston Benefactress. — In Yankee Atmospkero. — 
A Letter from Bcstou.— Some Words on " Peace Negotiations." — AYaitinir 



CHAPTER XI. 

P&rciets dEd Opinions in the North. — Vagabond Knights of Secessia 73 

CHAPTER XIT. 

rbe True Value of the Military Situation in the North. — The <^>ueHtio;j of Endu- 
niace oo. the prat of the Confederacy ' #80 

CHAPTER XIII. . 

Journal Notes.— Lolttr frolu a Catholic Friend.— An fivouing P;trty iu Brook- 
lyn.— Political Preaching.— Renegade Virginians -itj 

CHAPTER XIV. 

A Comparative -View of Noithfern Despotism. — The Record of Mr. Lincoln's Ad- 
miaifltratioa .,•> 



CONTENTS. -^-ii 



CHAPTEll Xy 



L'lom New York to Fortress Monroe. — ^Two Days. in Baltimore. — A. JJit of Ro- 
mance. — Cn.ptain •Tiiffor."' — The Negro Settlement at Fortress Monroe 



CHAPTEll XVI. 

i\. r»;^v '.vith ^<ener?.I liuller. — The Civilization and Foetrj f^f the "Simitarj 
Conimission." — Goncnil Bntler's ?hilo?opby antl •' litttle ^Stories." 104 

CHAPTER XYir. 

'■•n Parole la Fortress ."^ioni-oe. — A I'eooUection of Geucnil Fitz Lee. — A Bitter 

[disappointment. — Letter I'rom a ("atkolic Mother: Jn Mchioriam IL; 



CHAVTEr. XYIll. 



• 



,030 andSolilery Co'nlinemciit. — Lift; in a Guard-Bo::. — M<':nior.i}>le SulTerings. — 
A Glimpse of Hope , IW 

CHVI'TEP. XIX. 

V Week in the I'ankee Lines around Richmond. — The i'le;u=nre Farty on the 
"River Queen." — General Butler Aroused and Profane. — Yankee "War Cor- 
respondents '' at Headquarters. — Material of the Yankee Army: Negro Sol-, 
diers. — Yankee Officers on " Subiii.c:atiou." — General Butler's Tribute to Gcn- 
ernl Lee. — How I .^I.ide a Niutow Escape to Richmond 12;: 

CHAPTEPt XX. 

SoTae Reflections. — The Hojie ol Mie •■oiifqJeracy 131 



t 



CHAPTER I. . 

ttrsNJNG THE Blockadi':. — Tho '-Greyhound." — Pasoing the Blockade Line.--.— rThc raptnra.— 
V'ankee Courtesy. — Ofi' Fortress Monroe. 

^'Ruuning the Bloekude" to Europe i3 a pleasant thought to one in Riin,V 
mond : the iuiaginatiou of au adventure at the end of which are golden vision;: 
and that beatitude which may be summed up in •''plenty to wear and to eat.'' 
The first stage of the adventure brings one to Wilmington; and here he alrendj 
liuds in the luxurious cabins of the blockade-runners the creatui^-comf:»rts to 
wliich he has long been a stranger in the Coufederate capital, and has a fcTe- 
taste of some of the sweets of his adventure. 

Oranges, which, if they e-vistcd in Richmond, would be ticketed in somp, 
Jew's window at tv.-enry dollars apiece; pineapples, with tJieir forgotten '>.> 
grance ; wiuL-s and liquors, of which we have only the poisoned imitations iu 
Uichmoiid; and an array of cut and stained glass-ware that would have put 5o 
blush the stock of all the hotels iu the Confederacy (I had been eating r.nd., 
drinking out of tin at the Wilmington hotel,) were set out" with a bewildcriiig 
profusion in the cabin of the "Greyhound/' when I called to make my respects 
to Captain " Henry" and conclude my arrangements for passage out to BertmiL^a, 
What a .splendid fellow he was: a graceful dash of manner, which yet beairod 
with intelligence, au exuberant hospitality, a kindness that when it did a grate- 
ful thing so gracefully waived all expressions of obligation. He had been .11 
over the world; was familiar with the great capitals of Europe; bore the maxt'^; 
of a wound oblaiacd iu the campaign of Stonewall Jackson ; and as to his narae 
and nationality — why, passengers on blockade-runners are not expected to be 
inquisitive of these circumstances, and must beware of impertinent curiosity. 

''Want to get out on the Greyhound? Why, certainly; shall be very gJad 
to have you;'' and the Captain blew his piratical silver whistle, and his clerk 
liad soon noted my height, colowr of my eyes, <^e., for the Confederate officer, 
who was to come aboard next morning to muster crew and passengers, and ,'ce 
that no conscripts made au untickcted exit from Wilmington. 



XO OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

The reader must understand that, on vessels running the blockade, tliere 
is no accommodation for passengers, unless in the contracted space of the cap- 
tain's own cabin; hence, passengers are taken only by extraordinary favour. 

What a contrast was the ready consent of Captain '' Henry," an entire stran- 
'ger, to the negatives and quibbles of others. For there are in Wilmington 
specimens of the Southern Yankee: men, as v?e have seen them in Richmond, 
■whose swollen wealth, and beefy vulgarity, and insatiable avarice, number them 
with that brood of moral bastardy. Two officers of the volunteer navy of the 
Confederacy, who desired passage to proceed to a most important rendezvous, in 
urgent interests of the public service, were ruthlessly disappointed, because 
they could not manage to pay, for a seventy hours' passage to Bermuda, four 
hundred dollars in gold — then eight thousand dollars in the currency of the' 
Confederacy.'" 

On the night of the 9th of May, 1SG4, the Greyhound was lying off Fort 
Fishei', the signal-men blinking at eacb other with their lights in sliding boxes. 
It was necessary to get a dispensation from the fort for the Greyhound to pass 
out to sea, as no less than three fugitive conscripts — "stowaways" — had, 
been found aboard of her. Two of them were discovered on searching the ves- 
sel at Wilmington. But lower down the stream the vessel is overhauled again, 
and goes through the process of the Jumiyation of her hold to discover impro- 
per passengers. In the case of the Greyhound, to the intense disgust of the 
captain, and execrations of the crew, the process brought to light an unhappy 
stowaway, who was recognized as a liquor-dealer of Wilmington, and made 
no secret of his design to flee the conscription. After the threat, and appa- 
rently serious preparations, to throw him overboard, the '* stowaway" was, no 
doubt, relieved to find himself taken ashore to the comparative mercies of the 
enrolling officer. 



■■■ I had been very kindly offered by Governour Vance, of North Carolina, a passage on the 
line of steamers run by that State. There was no boat of that line then in port. I asked a 
Richmond m.in, largely interested in blockade-running, who is known to have accumulated vast 
wealth by the Davis patronage in Richmond, and to have fattened on the marrow-bones of the 
Commissary Department, the very small favour of allowing me a passage in one of his boats, 
in consideration that my pass on the North Carolina line might be transferred to any other pas- 
senger he might hereafter name oii; his own account — in fact, nothing more than a simple ex- 
change of convenience. I got a flat and boorish refusal. Yet, a British vessel took me out; and 
her captain, discovering my disappointment, and understanding the object of my proposed visit 
to England, placed hjs cabin at my disposal, and refused to take anything in return for his 
kindness but my thanks. 



OBSKRVATIONS IN THE NORTH. H 

At last wc are off. The moon is down : the steward has had orders to kill 
the geese and shut up the dog; the captain has put on a suit of dark clothes; 
every light is extinguished, every word spoken in a whisper, and the turn of 
the propcllei' of the Greyhound sounds like the beat of a human heart. There 
is an excitement in these circumstances. The low, white gray vessel glides fur- 
tively through the water, and you catch the whispered commands of the cap- 
tain : " Stead-ey," and then the &ore intense and energetic whisper : " Black 
smoke, by G — ; cut off your smoke." Every eye is strained into the shadows 
of the night. JJut how utterly useless did all this precaution and vigilance ap- 
pear on the Greyhound; for after two hours of suspense we were out of the 
blockade lines, and had seen nothing but the caps of the waves. A blockade 
for blockheads, surely, I thought, as I composed myself to sleep, dismissing en- 
tirely from my mind all terrors of tlie Yankee. 



It was about .two o'clock the next day, and the Greyhound was about one 
hundred and fifty miles out at sea, when the lookout reported a steamer astern 
of us. The day was hazy, and when the vessel was first descried, she could no" 
have been more than five or six miles astern of us. For a few moments there 
was a sharp suspense; perhaps the steamer had not seen us; every one listened 
with breathless anxiety, as the tall fellow at the mast-head reported the discov- 
eries he was making, through his glasses, of the suspicious vessel. "He is 
bearing towards a bark, sir ;" and for a few moments hope mounted in our hearts 
that we might not have been observed, and might yet escape into the misty ob- 
scurity of the sea. In vain. "He is a side- wheel steamer, and is bearing di- 
rectly for us, sir." ''Give her ber way," shouted the captain in response; and 
there was a tumultuous rush of the crew to the engine-room, and the black 
smoke curling above the smoke-stack and the white foam in our wake told plainly 
enough that the startled Greyhound was making desperate speed. 

But she was evidently no matcli for the Yankee. We were being rapidly 
overhauled, and in something more than an hour from the beginning of the 
chase a shell from the Yankee vessel, the "Connecticut," was whistling over 
our bows. The crew became unruly; but Captain "Henry," revolver in hand, 
ordered back the man to the wheel, declaring "he was master of the vessel 
yet." The mate reported that a very small crew appeared to be aboard the Yan- 
kee. "Then we will fight for it," said the spunky captain. But the madness 
of such a resQiution became soon manifest : for as the Connecticut overhauled 
us more closely, her decks and wheel-houses were seen to be black with men. 



12 OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

and a sliell, wliicli grazed our engine, warned us that we were a^ the mercy of 
the enemy. But for that peculiar nuisance of blockade-runners — women pas- 
sengers — the G reyhound might have been burnt, and the last duty performed in 
the face of the rapacious enemy. 

Dizzy, and disgusted with sea-sickness; never supposing that a vessel which 
had passed out of the asserted lines of blockade without seeing a blockader, 
without being pursued from those lines, aud already far out on the sacred high- 
way of the ocean, aud flying the British ensign, could be the subject of pirati. 
eal seizure; never dreaming thata simple Conicderate passenger could be the 
victim of Iddnappiiuj on the high seas, outside of all military and territorial 
lines, I had but a dim appreciation of the escited scenes on the Greyhound iu 
the chase. Papers, memoranda, packages of Confederate bonds, were ruthlessly 
tossed into the purser's bag to be consumed by the fiaraes in the engine-room; 
the contents of trunks were^ wildly scattered over the decks ; th'e white waves 
danced with ambrotypes, souvenirs, and the torn fragments of the large package 
of letters, missives of friendship, records of aitection, which had been entrusted 
to mc, aud which I at last unwillingly gave to the sea. 

Here, at last, close alongside of us, in the bright day, was the black, guilty 
thing, while from her sides were pushing out boats, with well-dressed crews in 
lustrous luiiforms and officers in the picturesqueness of gold and blue — a brave 
sight for grimy Confederates ! The Greyhound was no sooner boarded, than an 
ensign, who had his hair parted in the middle, and his hands encased in laven- 
der-colored kids, came up to me and asked me with a very joyous air how many 
bales of cotton were on board the vessel. I afterwards understood that, from 
my disconsolate looks, he had taken me to bo the owner of the cotton, and was 
probably desirous, by his amiable question^ to give a sly piuch to my misery. 



These plain records of experience, which are memorable in my life, would 
Ibave no value for me, and would, indeed, be despicable scribblings, if they did 
iiot contain the truth. Where there is any fact in these experiences to the ene- 
my's credit I shall not suppress it; he shall not only have thA benefit of it, biit 
my grateful acknowledgments; for I am too proud of the reputation of Confed- 
erates for candour and sensibility to kindness to risk it for the miserable gratifica- 
tion of writing a libel for popular passion. 

I shall ever retain a pleasant and grateful recollection of the^ treatment I, in- 
common with all the prisoners, obtained on board the Connecticut, and the hu- 



OBSEFiVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 15 

mane courtesy of her commander, JoLn ,T. Almr. I had all the accommoda- 
tions and attentioDB usually given to a passenger, was provided with a state- 
room, took my meals in the ward-room, and — what was the most grateful sur- 
prise of all — never had my car assailed with the epithet of " rebel," or any of 
the dirty plirru'^cs which I had supposed to be common in Yankee conversation 
whenever it alluded to the Confederacy. I was told by those who had more 
experience in. the matter than myself that the officers of the old r.avy of the 
ITuifccd States are remarkable for their decorous manners towards prisoners, and, 
in this respect, prcf^ented a striking contrast to the coarse vulgarity of the Yan- 
kee army. 



On the bright twelfth of May, the Connecticut was moving up the estuary of 
the James from Fortress Monroe to Newport News. The men-of-war and iron- 
clads which tL«)nged the stream hft'orded an exhibition of the enemy's naral 
power, which made us smile to think how little all this brave show of ribbed 
guns and arniarnents had accomplished against the statk spirit and beggarly re- 
sources of those who fight for liberty. , 

The pilot V('ho boarded us off the Capes (a fellow with a bilious skin and 
:rreased hair, who claimed to be from Maryland), brought a wonderful story of 
the progress of the war in Virginia. " The New York Herald had news as big 
as his fist : Beauregard's army cut in two ; Lee on a foot-race to Richmond ; 
ahead, everywho're," etc. I had heard such stuff before, and liaving had some 
experience of dissecting Yankee lies with pen and scissors, was not easily im- 
posed upon by the pilot's rci-urreotion of such from the columns of New York 
journals. 

At our xacii in the ward-room, a fellow-prisoner was tempted to ask the pilot 
if there were any Virginia pilots employed in the bay or river. " Not one/' was 
the fellow's reply; and a flush of shame might have passed his cheek on observ- 
ing the proud and meaning glance which three of the prisoners, Virginians, ex- 
changed at the announcement. I had heard before that the Virginia pilots, 
without a solitary exception, had abandoned their livelihoods and professions, 
spurning the temptations of the enemy and the gains they might have made 
from dishonour; but here was the unquestionable testimony of their self-sacrifice 
from the lips of an enemy and a rival. I do not know that the State of Vir- 
ginia has evev done anything for the::e noble men, turned adrift from their em- 



14 OBSERVATIONS IX THE NORTH. 

ployment, maoy of them I know earuiug scanty bread about Richmond, by the 
pitiable shifts of the refugee. Surely, such sacrifices as they have made should 
be gratefully recognized, and, as far as possible, rewarded; for they are another 
public decoration of the honour of the ''Old Dominion" in this war. 



CHAPTER 11. 

CuKiosiTiES or THE Yarkee Blockape. — Correspondence ■with Lord Lyons, <tc. 

My sense of the personal kindness of Captain Almy and his officers certainly 
did not disturb my conviction that the Connecticut had done a monstrous wrong, 
and that these persons were the instruments of a despotism at Wasliington, that, 
among other iniquities of the war, was imposing upon the world the monstrous 
lie of a blockade, which was, in fact, an ill-disguised system of piracy. 

There were in my mind certain questions touching the practical conduct of 
that blockade, which I was satisfied had not been pressed upon the attention of 
European Governments; which made what laAvyers call "a case" for the Grey- 
hound, and which might possibly result, through the timely and deteripined 
protests of some one, in the rescue of the vessel from her captors. I determined 
to risk my liberty in the attempt to make the issue. I had my opportunity 
of escape in suppressing my name and keeping quiet; but my convictions of 
justice to the vessel, and my confidence in the eventual triumph of principles, 
determined me to risk my case, not on a disguise, but on the truthful grounds 
that myself and vessel were legally exempt from capture. I hid already writ- 
ten to Lord Lyons claiming my release, and having resolved to make a similar 
issue for the vessel, I avowed to Captain Almy the necessity of my being sent 
to Boston, where the prize proceedings were to be held, to niake the proper pro- 
tests in behalf and in the interest of the owners of the Greyhound. I was 
sent on board the Greyhound, and soon secured the means of a free communi- 
cation in my own name and that of the Captain with Lord Lyons : the result, a 
correspondence which must here anticipate luy narrative of events. Little did 
I know what that correspondence was to cost me in the resentment of the Y\"ash- 
ingtou Government; for in it I had presumed to denounce the cheat of the 
blockade, and to attempt to rescue from Yankee clutches a prize worth more 
than half a million of dollars. What I was to endure for the temerity will fol- 
low in the course of the narrative, which the correspondence below anticipates — 
inserted here, if for no other interest, as an independent chapter ou the curiosi- 
ties of the Yankee blockade. 



IQ OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH.' 

COEEKSVONDENCK. 

1. 

On lioAnL THE United States 8tea>ier Connecticut, ) 

At Sea, May 11, 1864. j 

f ^rd Lyoin, L'iivoj/ IJxtraor dinars/ and 3fi'n)sta- Plenipotcnliary for her B,i- 
launic llajcxf}/, 7irar Washingtoi}, United States: 

My Lord : I bnve rcspeetfuUj to represent to you tliat I vras arrested yestor- 
tfay on the high scaf, by the Iluited States ste;imer Gonneeticut, from the deck 
of the British steamer Greyhound, in which 1 was a passenger for Bermuda, ern 
route for England — the Greyhound, at the time of capture, being about one 
K undred and fifty miles out at sea, and flying the British ensign. Having passed 
out of the lines of blockade, and of contested territorial jurisdiction, my. right as 
J": passenger bccarae, as I conceive, analagous and tantamount to those of asylum 
xjider the British flag; and, in liiis respect, I invoke its protection, and that I 
1 ay be permitted to pursue my way to England. 

I %Yns on board the CJrcyhound in the simple and exclusive character of a 
J -r-ienger. When arrested there on' the high seas I was proceeding to England 
fo fulfil an engagement for a literary work on the Confederate States, &c.. with 
lAiblishers in Lo)iUou, who had already printed two volumes I had composed of 
;', similar nature ; and also to discharge a private and domestic duty in visiting 
fV:o relatives of ftiv wife, who is a native of England and a subject of Her Bri- 
tannic Majesty, 1 aui not connected witli the military service ol' the ('onfede- 
jr'.to States, and am charged with no public office or trust on their behalf. These 
fs.cis m;iy be readily established by appropriate evidence ; and in consideration 
o'l them, I submit to youv Lordship that, if iaterpusition be necessary, 1 may be 
) "ctected in those very obvious rights, which 1 invoke in the character of an 
i^,nocent passejigf r on <he high seas, under the British flag. 
I have the honour, kc, your obedient servant, 

Ed\VAR1» a. i'oLLABP. 

IT. 

Os iioARf) Br.iTis:" Steamer Greyhol-nd, } 
New York, May 16, 1864. ] 

f.r.d Li/or-i^, IJiivoy Extraordinar)/, &€., near WasJn'nffton, D. C: 

My Lord : The Greyhound, on which 1 am now held as a pri.'^oner, having 
) (su ordered to Boston, and stopping here to coal, I take the opportunity to en- 



OBSERVATIONS L\ THE NORTH. 11 

close to jouv Lordship the duplicate of a former letter, written while I was a 
prisoner on board the United States stelimer Connecticut, and placed in the 
handf-i of Commander John J. Almy, commanding said steamer, for transmipsion : 
using the opportunity thus to insure commuuieation. 

It is, doubtless, unnecessary to encumber the statement I have already sub- 
mitted to your Lordship with any argument. But there is one view of the mat- 
ter which it may not be unncocssary or presumptuous to biing to your Lord- 
ship's attention. 

It muet frequently happen (as it has occurred in uiy case) that the Confede- 
rate States, from obvious considerations of military prudence, deny all communi- 
cations through the United States, or other adjoining territory, by land, and 
that, then, the only possible mode of egress is by sea, on vc.'^sels which pas-vs 
through tlie line of blockade. If, on board of one of these v esscls, which car- 
ried the IJrili.-^h flag, and had passed out of the jurisdiction claimed by the 
United States, I was not protej^ted from arrest, then it follows that the passenger 
(be he Englishman or Confederate) is made the victim of a necessity which he 
could not avoid, and for which he is not responsible. Such a rule would in- 
volve the rights of your own countrymen, my Lord, and any passenger, whose 
misfortune it was that he could not get out of the Confederia^ States, without 
crossing the ocean, might be, after he had passed out of the lines of contested 
territorial jurisdiction, hunted on the high &eas as Hawful prL:c, :tud be at ths 
mercy of any arbitrary ari'cst. 

I did not take passage on board the Greyhouad out of the port uf Wilming- 
ton until I liacl ascertained to my satisfaction that she was a homi fide British 
vessel, having undertaken the single voyage in wliich she was captured under a 
charter party, and entitled to carry the British flag, at least so far as to protect 
passenacrg., subject only to the risk of capture within the territorial limit asserted 
by the. United States. I trust that my circumspection in this matter has not 
been without avail, and that, having sought the protection of the British flag, in 
good faith, and with an innocent purpose, I may speedily realize it through the 
offices of your liordshiji. 

I have the honour to re/aew my respects. 

Your obedient servaat, 

Edward A. I'ollari). 



IS OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 



III. 

On Board Steamer Greyhound, ) 
At Sea, May 14, 1864. j 

Lord Lt/ons, Envou Extraordinary, dr., fur Her Britannic 3IaJes(i/, near 
Washincjton, United States : 

My Lord : I am now held as prisoner on board the British steamer Grey- 
hound, which is claimed as a prize by the United States steamship Connecticut, 
and is ordered, as I am informed, to the port of Boston, where proceedings will 
be taken for her condemnation. The circumstances under which the Greyhound 
was captured are peculiar, and involve a question of the most obvious interest 
and gravest import to Her Majesty's Government and to the rights of property 
in her subjects. 

The Greyhound was, in good faith, and in all/espects, a British vessel, and 
had been chartered at Bermuda to take out from the port of Wilmington certain 
private cotton purchased and paid for by subjects of Great Britain, and held ex- 
clusively on their own account. Not one pound of this cotton belonged to any 
citizen of the Confederate States ; nor did any such citizen have any interest 
whatever in the vessel or her venture. Your Lordship will be easily able to de- 
termine from the ship's papers, and all other circumstances, that the nationality 
of the Greyhound was not a disguise — an adopted convenience for running the 
blockade — but was in all respects a true and unaffected claim on the part of her 
owners. 

At the time of the capture of the Greyhound, on the 10th instant, she was 
in lat. .3.3 degs. 10 min. 15 sec, and long. 75 degs. 47 min. 45 sec. west, one 
hundred and twenty-five miles from the nearest land, flying the British ensign. 
She had passed out to sea from the port of Wilmington without seeing a Federal 
cruiser, and without any visible evidence of a blockade. But even if that block- 
ade had existed, and was something more than a vicious fiction, by which Fede- 
ral cruisers, instead of picketing the coast, are permitted to take easy prizes on^ 
the high seas, I submit to your Lordship that the Greyhound, having once 
passed out the territorial limit, and flying the British flag, not for the purposes 
of concealment, but by clear title of right, could not be outlawed on the high 
seas, and took the risks of blockade only within the territorial jurisdiction 
claimed by the United States. Any other rule would extend the jurisdiction of 
the United States over the high seas, and the flag of Her Majesty's Govern- 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE XOHTH. 19 

meut, carried there bj a clear title in the vessel to fly it, would afford no pro- 
tection. 

As another circumstance of the illegality in the capture of the Greyhound — 
indeed, I may say as one of wholly unnecessary . iudignitj' — I have further to 
r-tate to your Lordship, that when the vessel had been brought to Newport News, 
the Commodore present, the senior officer commanding the Federal squadron, 
commanded the British flag on my vessel to be hauled down, and the Federal 
flag to be hoisted in its place. There is certainly no shadow of right for such a 
proceeding until the vessel is condemned in due course of law ; and of the spirit 
of an act, where the law and the rule of propriety which it equally offends are 
both so plain, your Lordship will doubtless have no diificulty in judgin"-. 

Trusting that the rights of tlie owners of the Greyhound, which I am left for 
the present to represent, will receive the attention of your Lordship, and havino- 
every confidence in your Lordship's sensibility to whatever touches the rights 
and honour of Her Majesty's Government, 

I have the honour, &c., 

Your obedient servant, 

George Henry, 
blaster of the Greyhound. 

IV. 

British Legation, ] 
.Washington, D. C, May 20, 18G4. / 

Sir: It is the usual and correct practice that the master and one or more of 
the other persons taken on board a neutral vessel captured for breach of block- 
ade should be sent in the vessel to a port of the captor, in order that their evi- 
dence may be taken in the case ; but if such persons be neutral, they ouo'ht to 
bo released as soon as they have given their evidence, and their evidence oueht 
to be taken without unnecessary delay. 

I have written to the Secretary of State of the United States to express my 
hope that you will be set free immediately after 3-our evidence has been taken • 
and I beg of you to. lose no time in- informing me if this be not done. 

I have also applied to the Secretary of State qf the United States for the re- 
lease of those of the oflacers and crew of the Greyhound who were taken out of 
the vessel, and who have, I am sorry to say, been detained as prisoners at Camp 
Hamilton, near Fortress Monroe. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, Lyons. 

E. A. PvUard, i:sq. 



30 OBSEir.'ATIONS IK THE NOIlTH. 

Y. 

Boston, May 26, 1864. 

Lord L>/onf. Envoi/ Ej'traoTilinc.rij, dc, fur Her Britannic Majesty, near ^yasl\^ 
riujton.) United States : 

3ry Lord : T hrtvc been detained here a? a prisoner one week to-day, notwitb- 
fttanding th.e iiotificalion under date of 20fc!i instant, with which your Lovdship 
obliged me, to the effect that you had applied to the Secretary of State of the 
ITnited States for my release. 

There w-a-e tsso points in ray case which I bci;' to bring to your attention again 
in a prec^e and brief recapitulation: 

1. Thej Greyhound had passed out of the port of Yrilmington, v'ithout sight 
of a blockading vessel, and was tsjken by a cruiser about one hundred and fifty 
miles out jk sea. I desire to put the question to your Lordsltip, if the Covera- 
nienfc at Watldngton can so change its tactics of blockade as to omit an efficient 
gMard of thje coast and take up vessels which have come out of Confcderat-e 
ports by fasV.-^ailing cruisers on the ocean highway; for such I was informed^ by 
an officer of the United States steamer Connecticut, was the recently adopted 
and easy plan of taking prizes, the fruits of which your Lordship may have ob- 
served in the capture of four vessels as prizes in a singte weelc, each taken -far 
out on the high seas. 

2. The Greyhound was thoroughly a British vessel; the British flag she car- 
ried, was not a d^tcoy; and that flag covered me after 1 liad ^Kissed cnct of the 
territorial jurisdiction of the United States^ ; and, even in case it did not pro- 
tect vessel or cargo, (granting, for argument, these to be of an illicit character,) 
protected me as an innocent passenger; else, having no other egress from the 
Confederate States, the passenger would be the victim of his necessity; and, 
else again, if a citizen of the Confederate States, not contraband, could be out- 
lawed on the high'seas, under that flag, flying on a ?*o?ia /trZt: British vessel, why 
not a subject or citizen of any other (Jovernmcnt? If the flag was a reality at 
all, it certainly should give protection on the ocean highway to a passenger who 
was pursuing objects of private convenience, and certainly was not amenable to 
--^ny military penalties of the Government at Washington. 

Begging that your Lordship will a(;quit me of the charge of importunity in a 

runtter the importance of which is by no means altogether personal to myself, I 

have the honour, &c., 

Your obedient servant, 

FiDVi'ARD A. Pollard, 

P. S. — I telegraphed your Lordship on the 24th instant to obtain liberty for 



obsj:rvations in the xorth. 21 

me to see you in Wasbinp^ton in the interest of the Gveyhouud, but have re- 
ceived no repiy: heuce tbe.se bucs. 

Another circumstance : It is true, that if the blockade-runner bo seen iu jia- 
grante O.dl-ta passing the territorial lines, she may be pursued and taken ou the 
high seas. • But the Greyhound was not pursued : she was waylaid on the high- 
way of the seas. Such a practice would convert the blockade into a system of 
loving commissions, and might as well be predicated of the coast of Bermuda a? 
of that of the Confederate States. f, 



VI. 

British Legation, Washtn<;tox, D, C, ) 
May 28, 18G4. ' ] 

Sir: I have received your letter of the day before yesterday. 
. On receiving your telegram of tlie 24th instant, stating that you were charged 
to represent to me the facts of the ease of the Greyhound and the interests of 
the owners, I sent by telegraph instructions to Her Alajesty's consul at Boston 
to ask you to communicate on these matters with him for my information. I 
have to-day received from him an account of an interview which he had with 
you the day before yesterday. 

I will request the consul to see that any British subjects interested in the 
Greyhound have proper facilities for defending their interests before the Prize 
Court. This is all I can do at present. I have referred the case to Her Ma- 
jesty's Government, and I deem it right to wait for instructions from them be- 
fore taking further steps. 

I am, sir,, your obedient servant, Lyo.xs. 

Edv:a,d A. Pollard, E^q. 



YII. 

FouT Warrkn, Boston Harbour, ) 
July 2 [should be Jnac 2], \mU | 

Lord ^Lijoiu, Eavoj Extraordinari/ and 2J.inklr:r Ptenipvtoitiury for Her 
Britannic. Majoifij, near Washington : 

My Lord : I have been honored by your attention in two letters, which, I beg 

leave to state, very respectfully, Jiave left me in some confusion of mind as to 

your Lordship's views and intentions with reference to my case. On the 20th 

ultimo, you write that you had "'expressed your hope" to the Secretai-y of 

State of the United States that I should be "set free immediately," &c.; and on 

the 28th ultimo, you do not say what has been the issue of that hope; and 



22 OBSERVATIONS L\ THE NORTH. 

■while referring to the prize proceedings against the Greyhound, you make no 
reference -whatever to my persoual claims of protection by the British flag as ci 
passenger on the high seas. In the meantime, I have been imprisoned in Fort 
Warren, by orders from Washington, without notice, without trial, and without 
being advised of any charge whatever against me. 

It is true that Her Majesty's consul at Boston mentioned to me that he un- 
derstood that you had written the first letter, assuring me of my claim of lib- 
erty, under the impression that I was a British subject: an impression which 
your Lordship will do me the justice to observe was not derived from any state- 
ment of mine, or any implication of my correspondence. But I cannot see the 
force of the distinction. If I had been an Englishman, it seems I would have 
been entitled to my release: why? — by. grace of the Washington authorities or 
by force of right? The former supposition, I think I may safely say, would be 
resented by yourself, as well as by your Government, my Lord ; and if the re- 
lease, then, is to be put on any grounds of right, then the case of the English- 
man would be no better than my own. The flag would protect me as well as 
him. It either must be a piece of bunting, and protects nothing; or, if it pro- 
tects anything, it would protect all jjassrHf/(»?'s alike. As far as the question is 
that of citizens or persons, it belongs to my own Government, and I am willing _ 
to rest it there ; but as a question involving the British flag on the high seas, 
which either sinks there all other insignia and distinctions of nationality, and 
protects all passengers a,liko, or is an unmeaning display, I have brought it to 
the consideration of your Lordship, and respectfully asked your decision. I can- 
not find that the latter is stated or intimated in the letters of your Lordship, to 
which I have had the honour to refer. 

I have, etc., your obedient servant, 

Edward A. Pollard. 



VIII. 

J British Legation, Yv^'ashington, D. C. 

June 9, 1864. 

Sir : I received, on the Gth instant, a letter from you, dated (evidently by 
mistake ) 2d of July. In answer to it, I can only say that I have referred your 
case to Her 3Iajesty's Government, and sent them copies of your letters to me, 
and that, while waiting for instructions from them, I do not feel at liberty to 
discuss the subject. Whatever orders they may think proper to give will be 
immediately executed by me. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
E. A. Pollard, Esq. ' Lyons. 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE XOBTII. 23 

NOTES. 

The law of blockade was early defined ia this country under the pressure of 
the British orders in council and blockade of ISOG, iu retaliation for the Berlin 
decree, at -which time we find the elaborate protests of Madison against "the 
mockeries and mischiefs practised under the name of blockade." The doctrine 
of fictitious blockade was then exploded, and Great Britain was compelled to 
conform her practice to the definition made in her convention with Russia in 
l'*^01,to the effect that a blockaded port was only such as there was an '• evident 
, danger in entering." 

In this war the United States have gone far beyond these abuses of fictitious 
blockades, which she formerly made subjects of such violent complaint, and has 
practically converted the blockade which she asserts of the Confederate coasts 
into a system of roving commissions, by which vessels not chased from th- 
hlochade lines are waylaid and taken up by cruisers on the ocean highway. 
Captures, such as that of the Greyhound, are acts of pinxci/. 

But, in the above correspondence, a second point is discovered. It is con- 
tended that not only was the Greyhound not a good prize, but that the taking a 
passenger from the shelter of her flag was an aggravation of the capture, and 
the plain offence of l-alnapping. 

On the second point we have American authority so decisive and abundant, 
that not an inch of ground is left for the Government at Washington, which 
still uses the style, and, of course, is bound by the precedents of the United 
States, whereon to defend such a violation of a neutral flag. 

It was Daniel Webster who put a well-recognized principle of international 

law in this neat phrase : "That a ship on the high seas was part of the nation's 

territory." It was on this ground that the United States defended the rights 

of her fliag against every claim which Great Britain ever made of arrest under 

it. ' 

In a letter of instructions, written in 1804, by Mr. Madison, then Secretary 

of State, to Mr. Monroe, resident minister in London, there is a plain and com- 
plete enunciation of the doctrine contended for in the above correspondence, 
lleferring to the immunities of a neutral flag, as recognized by Great Britain, 
the Secretary writes : 

"She will not deny the general freedom of the high seas, and of neutral ves- 
sels navigating them, with such exceptions only as are annexed to it by the law 
of nations. . . . But noidicre v:ill she Jxnd an exception to this freedorti of 
the scaSj a7id of neutral J^ar/s, which Just if es the taldnj mnay of any person^ not 



24 OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

flu enerni) in mU'dary service, found un hoard a ncxitral vessel. If treaties, 
Uritisli as well as others, are to be consulted on tliis subject, it will equally ap- 
pear that no countenance to the practice can be found in them. Whilst they 
admit :i contraband of wai', by enumerating its articles, and the effect of a real 
blockade by defining it, in no instance do they affirm or imply a right in any 
sovereign to enforce his claims to the allegiance of his suhjects on hoard neutral 
vessels on the high seas ; on the contrary, whenever a belligerent claim against 
persons on board a neutral vessel is referred to in treaties, enemies in military 
.^enyiee alone are excepted from the general immunity of persons in that situa- 
tion ; and this exception coutirms the immunity of those who are not included 
in it. ... If the law of allegiance irhich is a Timmcipcd law, be in force 
at all ou the high sea's on board foreign vessels, it must be so at all times there, 
as it is within its acknowledged sphere. If the reason alleged for it be good in 
time of war, namely, that the sovereign has then aright to the services of all 
hi« subjects, it must be good at all times, because he has the same right to their 
seivice. . . . Taking reason and justice for the tests of this practice, it 
is peculiarly indefensible, because it deprives the dearest rights of persons of a 
regular trial, to which the most inconsiderable article of property captured on 
the high seas is entitled, and leaves their destiny to the will of an officer.^' 
(Am. State Papers. Vol. III. Foreign Relations, p. 81.) 



CHAPTER III.- 

A Week iv Boston. — Introduction to the U. S. Marsbal.— A Fugitive Sl&ve.— In the Sc.Tef>;.5 
of Boston : Two Spretacles. — A Circle of Secessionists in the ''llub of the Universe." 

A3 the Greyhound worked her way through the green and picturesque arcx 1- 
pelago of Boston harbour, the pilot did me the kindness of pointing out Fct 
Warren as my probable abode for some future month.s, and confidentially ?p ii- 
ting in my ear the advice to " holler for the Union." He had also found ceca- 
sion to e.'^say some advice to '' Jane/' a negro woman, one of those tidy, respec- 
table family vSefvant?, redolent of " Old Virginia," who had bcon captured on 
her way to join hor mistrc??, the wife of a Confederate agent in Bermuda. 
Jane'.^ response was not complimentary; for the experience of the Yankee, 
which that respectable coloured female had obtained from the amount of swerr- 
ing and swilling on the Geeyhound, had induced her to assert,' with mebn-- 
choly gravity, that " she Uad not seen a Christian since she left Petersburg/' 

The United States Marshal, who was introduced by the prize-master, v:'.::h 
the whispered injunction that '' we had better be i)olite/' was a little Yanliee 
with gimlet eyes, and who, with the fondness of his nation for official insign>, 
bad adorned himself with a long-tailed coat, scrupulously blue, and garni,?h<:d 
with immense metal buttons marked U. S. He was accompanied by three cit".. 
zens, two of whom appeared to be civil and intelligent gentlemen, whose euTi- 
oslty, if that was the motive of their visit, was subdued by their polit.ene~3- 
The third had an emasculated lisp, which I afterwards found to be charac:;:- 
"stic of a.certain class id Boston, and which wa„s increased in this instance "'•y 
the effect of the liquor he had drank. " He was a Virginian ; he thougbt It; 
right to indulge a little State pride." '' Oh, to be sure/' responded the prison- 
ers, who thought the confidential injunction to be polite to die marshal includ£ J 
his toady. The fellow came up to me whispering something about '•' his sjm- 

pathies being with Virginia, but it wouldn't do to let the d d rascals know 

it." I was glad enough to repel the embraces of this creature without enqiiir- 
ing why it " wouln't do" to testify his sympathies for Virginia, and how it irr 3 
that his sympathies detained him in Boston, and kept him in the company ti 



« 



%Q OBSERVATIONS L\ THE NORTH. 

''- d J rn.rcals." I afterwards discovered thtxt lie v.ttis a pyze-lawyer, and 

1 reyed for a living upon Yankee crews. ^ ^ 

The DiaTsLal having taken himself ofF with the |>riKc-TOa.ster, I was, about 
r.undown, invited ashore by a sovcre-lookiag man, placed in a carriage and driven 
rJong the green skirt of Boston rommon to a building, which I was told con- 
tained the marshal's office. That official had not arrived there. I was waved 
l,ack into the carriage by the severe man. "Where are we going now?"- 1 asked 
j.Icaaantly. " To the Jail."' replied the severe man, very sharply and senten- 
tLously. I protested that I was a pas.«engcr on board the Greyhound, already in 
communication with Lord Lyons, to protect xny rights, as such, under the neu- 
tral flag on the high seas; and if the marshal or hi."? deputy presumed to treat 
me as a criminal, and put me in a common jail, it would be at the peril of grave 
legal consequences. 

The latter part of my protest seemed to affect the deputy, for he relaxed his 
I rows, and had me dri\cn to the Trcmont House, w^here the marshal was to be 
fouud. 1 was readily released on m}- parole not to attcuipt to escape. At a 
f^ubsequcnt hour of the night, having found my way to a very modest, but excel- 
lent hotel, where I registered as " E. A. Parkinson,'' from "New York/' I, at 
iaat, relieved from the presence of authority, and the annoyance of impertinent 
curiosity, enjoyed the first undisturbed sleep I had had for manj night*. 



I was taking breakfast the next morning, when the negro waiter who at- 
tended me, surprised me by suddenly asking mo, with a grin, " if I was not 
from the Southern country." It was useless to dispute a negro's intuition in 
this matttjr; and the poor fellow was so eager in his qucstloH? that I told him, 
without hesitation, where I was from, suppressing my name and my condi- 
iion as a prisoner. He introduced himself as " Lew. "Walker." He was 
the slave of some gentleman in Petersburg, and had deserted h!^ master — 
or, as he described it in the polite Yankee vernacular, had "skedaddled" 
r:ome mouths ago. lie liked the North "tolerably well;" he had married 
m Boston, (I did not ask him the colour of his wife) ; but ]ie said only a 
few of " his people" who had come North had been as fortunate as himself. 
" Y(Vu see, sir, de change is too sudden for 'em," was his explanation. Lew. ex- 
pressed a desire to return South, and said he would go right away, if he could 
get back without trouble. His desire in this respect was unpleasantly postponed ; 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 21 

as some weeks aftevwards I road in the police report of a Boston paper, that 
Lew. had been caught putting a ^ruest's portmonaio in the leg of his boot, and, 
instead of getting for it the traditional thirty-nine lardies in Petersburg or Kich- 
mond, haii obtained a civilized sentence of siz inouths in prison. 



I felt something like translation to a new world in the gay streets and luxu- 
rioua hotels of Uostou. In the latter places, were to be seen knots of sleek, 
lust-dieted men, lounging and guzzling; in the streets, a dizzy show of well- 
dressed crowds, going to and fro on errands of business and pleasure, or in the 
idle excursions of ostentation. What a contrast to the scanty homes of Ilich- 
mond, and its streets, where soldiers in dust-stained gray challenge the passen- 
ger, and where the eye has become accustorucd to the home-spun garb, the mil- 
dewed uniform, ami the other proud tokens of the unabashed and stern poverty 
of a country fighting for liberty ! Oh, my countrymen I how uiy heart bounds 
to tliink of you, in the dainty and ostentatious crowd that licsets me ! Our 
tears, our dust-stained rags, our broken goods, onr images of poverty — shall not 
history gather thera into a njonument more glorious and more enduring than any 
the hand of Opulence can rear. 

I had been left to understand that owing to the delay of the Washington Gov- 
ernmeat in attending to such small matters as the riglUs of liberty of individu- 
als, I should probably have my parole for a week or ten days in Boston, and 
might enjoy myself accordingly. But what enjoyment I Wherever I ventured 
out, I was sure to get my dose of Yankee, and on all occasions of such " enjoy- 
ment," I was glad to get back to the privacy of t\\e four walls of my little 
bedroo^i. 

I might go into the parlours or the reading-rooms of the hotels, and see tliere 
the peculiar fungi of Yankee hotel society. I might sally into the strectvS, and 
see the equipages of " Shoddy," driven by solemn looking coachmen, dressed 
in black, with mutton whiskers. I might stroll into Booton Common, and be 
beset there by the itinerant Yankee with his " Picspiroraeter,'' his "Grand Ste 
reopticou of tKc War," or some other one-coat wonder. It is not strange thab 
a plain Confederate might be disgusted with such a programme of entertain- 
ment. ]?ut I did find some amusement, at occasional hours, in walking through 
Washington street, and observing crowds of enthusod Yankee?, including strap.. 



28 OBSEaVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

ping women, willi sVi'onq; minds and constitutioual " yearnings,'' gathered around 
the garisTi b'es of the newspaper bulletins, and devouring such intelligence a^^ 
the '' Capture of Richmond,'' " Rout of the Rebels," " Defeat of HainptouV 
Legion by Massachusetts Negroes," &c., &c. 

There were two oooasions in Boston which drew rae from the rtstiremcnt of 
my hotel. One was the celebration of the returrf of a Massachusetts regiment, 
from the lines in Virginia, their term of service having expired, and the " brav© 
boys" haA ing sought their horses in the very heat and crisis of Grant's mem- 
orable campaign. They had left Virginia at the very moment the great battle 
had been joined on the Rapidarj. Such conduct would have been despised as 
an exhibition of selfishness or cowardice in the South, and a regiment of Con- 
federates returning home under such circumstances, would have been hooted in 
the streets of Richmond. But the Yankee is too fond of " sensations" to ana- 
lyze any moral question they may involve. The whole of Boston was in an up- 
roar of delight to receive the returned regiment which was escorted througk 
the streets with all^ the military display the city could muster : ilags waving 
welcome ; spreads of canvas in the streets entitled : " Honor to the Brave :" 
handkerchiefs and parasols flapped from windows; cai'-Ioads of school chil- 
dren; and a jam' of omnibuses at each corner of the route of "the braves," 
crowned with admiring spectators. Then there was a dinner at Faneuil Hall, a 
speech from Governor Andrew, and complimentary honours enough to fill two or 
three columns of the next morning's papers. 

Really, the most c-arious philosophy iu the composition of the Yankee is hi.- 
love of sensation : the most distinctive trait, too, of the nation, and one in such 
especial and striking contrasfeto the plain and serious manners of the Confeder- 
ates. It has frequently occurred to me that an occasion of the sympathy of 
Englishmen with us in this war is the similarity of our manners, proceeding iu 
each instauco from the habit of a quiet and practical estimation of things at 
their ri"ht value. The Confederates are a people of habitual sobriety of seuti- 
'ment, readily excited on due occasion, but much more so by the inspiration of ab- 
stract principles than by the names of persons. How different the Yankee : 
I have seen General Lee passing through the streets of Richmond without a 
huzza and without any other attestation of his presence than that of his bcins 
occasionally pointed out with a (iuiet and respectful regard. I certainly never 
heard of a mob of admirers at his hotel, or a deputation of Confederate damsel^ 
to kiss him, or poetasters reciting to him, in public, verses, or "masterly bal- 



OBSERVATIONS IN" THE NORTH. .20 

lads."* .But tho Yankees must have their "big thing," and if there 
ia nothing else to serve their appetites the?o people will actually exag-- 
•orate their own disgrace and caricature themselve? wther than not have 
their " souHation " in the penny newspapers. We all recollect what mag- 
jiifi(id and gloating description-; the Yankee journals gave us of the foot- 
race of their army from Bull llun to Washington — one of the first "sen- 
sations " of the war. And here we have a twenty-four hours " sensation '* 
in Boston in the celebration of the return of a regimeat of soldiers, who 
come homo in the remarkable circumstance that they Lave not re-enlisted 
lor the war, and have turned their backs upon their comrades at the brunt of 
the campaign. 

The other occasion which took me into the streets was c>ne of sad, memorable 
interest. I had seen in one of the city papers that two hundred Confederate 
prisoners were expected in Boston from the prisons in the West; they having 
taken tho oath of allegiance and enlisted in the I'ankee navy. I went to the 
depot to see these .wretched men, and when I saw them filing through tbe dense 
crowd, with their emaciated faces and bowed heads, I could not find it in' my 
heai't to accuse them. There was tho evidence in their pinched faces and 
flimsy rags of the devilish appliances of torture that had been used to break the 
spirit and impugn the honour of these unfortunates.' 

But in the behaviour of the crowd which received" them at the' depot there 
^vas a lesson which I trust I may never forget. The poor fellows wore rldiculfcd 
at every step, laughed at, assailed .with contemptuous remarks, and had to run 
fhc. gauntlet of the wit of butcher boys and greasy loafers, well pleased with 
their supposed superiority to Southern " barbarians." Such was the fraternal 
reception of tho.se who returned to Yankee allegiance. And in thi.^ scene of 
derision at the depot I saw in miniature what would be the real consequences of 
tho return of the Confederates to the Union, and what meant for as the promised 
embrace of fraternal reconciliation. 

Oh! my countrymen, death and the viiitatlun of all other misfortunes and 

•* Eut what ahall we say of the other mo^t characteristic fashion of Yankee hero-worship — 
rewarding their fnilitary and naval commanders with ijuma of woue!/.' Thus, the New York 
Herald, of a certain date, says : "Vt'e are now abouf to make Farragut a preaent of one hun- 
dred thousand dollivrc", and Winalow a free gift of twenty-five tUoasand dollarp. By-and.by W9 
iihall raise tCPtimoiiial fortunes for Grant, Shermnn and Thomas aUo." Daniel Webster in his 
lifotime did not Levitate to stoop to fiich gifts to hi? popularity; and xiM modern Yankee is cer- 
winly not an improvoment upon him. 



;30 OESERVATIOXS IN, THE NORTH. 

iiiiscry, rather tliac tlie cniljrueo; oi' our eneiiij I God f^pare us the pollutiou ol' 
contact with a people who have iunied every thing to a lie, aud wlw, rayeniat'' 
for our bl'Xid, smile afid stab. Who <:ouId endure the triumph of the Yankee— 
the braggart exultation of the coxcombs of crealioa — tlie mereilese dominion of 
the most cowardly ana revengeful of mankind ! Rather the grave cover us 
and our name, and our dear country pass avray in the mist of blood and teaif , 
than we should eonsefit.to this huuiiliation ! 



I had parisod a week in Bost-m, entirely unknown and secluded, when an ia- 
cideut occurred that was to op.;n to me a new and surprising interest in this 
Yankee metropolis. I was saitntoring in the reading-room of the hotel one 
evening, when an amiable looking gentleman came up to me with a beaming face 
and whispered, '^ Arc you not Mr. Pollard, from llichmond?" I was so taken 
aback by the plump question that I could not help answering '• Yes." " I 
thought HO," he replied rjuickly; '• some detectives here know you; hush, talk 
low. I want you to let me bring a friend around to see you at nine o'clock thig. 
evening." I signified my arsscnt, and awaited with .some interest an interview 
about which there appeared to be .some mystery. 

At nine o'clock I recfci'ted in luy chamber the g«utlemau who hi/l so uncere- 
moniously introduced himself to mo, and who was, indeed, to prove a friend, ac- 
companied by a geuileiuan whose name was already familiar to me as one who 
had suffered for his early and brave sympathy with the Confederacy in this war. 
There are obvious reasons why 1 should not mention here the names of these 
friends and of other sympathetic persons in Boston, afterwards found, who sur- 
prised me, not only by the warmth and delicacy of their personal kindness, but 
by tlieir sentimcurs for my country 

I sat up wjth my two visitors until near three o'clock in tliC morning in con- 
versation on the war, answering their eager inquiries of men and things in the 
Oonfedcracy. The next day it was insisted that I should be introduced to a 
number of persons in Boston who sympathized with the South ; and some of my 
countrymen will be surprised to learn that to meet these persons I was carried 
to the Merchants' Exchange, to the oflices of leading lawyers, and to some of 
the largest business establishments in Boston. I may say here that in the 
course of two or three days 1 met at least one hundred gentlemen in Boston, 
among its mcst iutiuential classes, who expressed to me an ardent sympathy for 



-oesp:rvation.s in the north. 3j 

the South in her struggle for conjtitational liberty, and an earnest desire for tho 
acknowledgmont of her indepondcncc as the only possible termination of an un- 
natural and unhappy war. 

Tone one could this have been a greater surprise than myself. I had loii;.^' 
been a .skeptic as to the opposition to the Lincoln Cloverument in the North, an:i 
had esteemed it nothing more tlum a uemoustratlon of partizan machinery, in 
competition for office and power. But however correct may be this general 03 ; 
timate of parties in the North, what I was made a private witness of in Boston 
was sufficient to satisfy any candid mind thut the Southern Confederacy had '•. 
party in the North of devoted and intelligent friends, however small in number ^ 
yet entitled to her consideration and gratitude. What was most remarkable Wc":.i 
that these men sympathized with us not from infidelity to their own section, bu;, 
on the high and intelligent grounds that the war involves the issue of their owi'i 
liberties, and that the Southern Confederacy in this struggle represents what re 
mains of constitutional law and conservatism in America, battling against >, 
fanaticism which must at last be destructive of itself. A sympathy of this sor*^! 
is valuable. There is, perhaps, other sympathy with us in the North puDceecl 
ing from lass honourable motives, the mere fruit of faction — properly entitle 1 
" Coppcrheadism " — which I am very much inclined to think is worthless ami 
contemptible- ''Sir," said a leading merchant of Boston to me, ''I am nc5 
what is called a disloyal man. I want to sec the South succeed because I want. 
to see the constitutional issue she is fighting for succeed. I regard General Leo 
as fighting our battles as well as your own, and if he is whipped we shall have 
a despotism at Vrashington which will crush freedom in the North, as well aj 
independence in the South." 

In short, I had discovered a circle of '' secessionists " in Boston, and haci 
been cursing the black desert of heartless crowds before my eyes, without tbo 
least thought that it contained an oasis for the despised Confederate. I Wdv 
overwhelmed with kindness by my newly found friends ; offered a tostimonir.t 
dinner which I peremptorily declined; invited to charming country places a^ t 
suburban rides. Alas, from this amicable diversion my thoughts were to be soon 
turned into a channel of bitterness ! What could avail even the most generot? j 
kindness of a few individuals when I had been marked as a victim by the A~.' 
tocracy at Wa.shiugton, and the iron wheel of its torture was being prepared to 
grind my life with such unutterable misery as the imagination of despotisti 
could invent. 



CHAPTER IV. 

'.. aMMiTMZJtx TO j-ui-.T Waruen. — Hoffours of the Yankee BastHc—TuituTC of " A Eratal Vii- 
L-.. A."— A Letter to Secretary Welles. 

I waJ^ taken from a pick bed to 1x13^ granite prison snd sack of stratr. I had 
been suffering many aiontts from nervous prostration ; and so much had it been 
a;r"ravated, by the anxieties of my situation, that I had taken myseh^ to bed. 
}' was lying there, the morning of Sunday, the 29th of May, when a deputy of 
t LC United States marshal entered my room, and ordered me to accompany him 
( : Fort Warren. There was no explanation of this harsh and immediate sum- 
"lons, except that ''orders had come to that effect from Washington." In vain 
* :rcai tlie con^nos of sickness, and sought the delay of a single day. " Could 
! see the n ar>;hal ?" ''No. The orders from Washington were to imprison 
ir,c 'forthwith." "' '•' Yj'hat was I accused of? Why was it that the other pas- 
. 'j>-'ers on the Greyi.ound were so graciously liberated, and I alone scut to Fort 
\ arren?" The oificer .Vid not know. So, without explanation, without notice, 
fithout process of any sort, I had been selected, tlio single victim, to suffer for 
fi-S Greyhound, while-her rna^ter was off f»r Canada, and the other passengers 
Lad been permitted, without a whisper of investigation, to proceed in the same 
direction. Perhaps my imprisonment, under these circumstances, was a com- 
|,\Lmentary distinction ; but I must confess that, at the time, I could not, as the 
'\-ankees say, " see it." 

In the beautiful Saubath-d:iy. full of sunsliiae, through the sparkling water, 
r*ad along the green islands of the bav. 1 was carried to miy prison-house, the 
f'iih.t of whose solid masonry, rising ab.n-e the bright water, smote my heart with 
:-' strange agony. What mockery all this flashing and picturesque scenery of 
i pston bay, as I passed through it on t fie way to pri.-^on. Through it all I could 
1..C the horrid maw of the jail that awaited me, and the black veil that was to 
ill over my hope-, and drape them in mourning. 

I was presented to Major Cabot, i-ommandant of the fort, "registered," and 
x~a5 then asked to surrender my money and give an account of my effects. The 
T.tier proceeding'* were undertaken ))y Lieutenant Parry, the officer " in charge 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE l^ORTH. 33; 

of prisoners," wlio dispensed with all that v,a.s unpleasant in them, and took my 
word that I had "neither weapons nor documents" inmyboggage. This officer 
wa3 v«ry civil, and not only spared me the ind'gnity of a search, but addressed 
me 8ome polite common-places, kindly intended I thought, to compose my mind, 
He inquired when I had left Richmond ; and a^ked with an appearance of great 
interest, after the condition of General Longsti'ect, who had been wounded be- 
fore I hud taken my departure from the Confederacy. 

Here let me say, once for all, that I am satisfied the officers of Fort Warren 
showed, to the prisoners in their charge, all the kindness ' they could venture j 
but at the same time I am forced to declare that this disposi^on could do but 
little to mitigats that system of j^iuuvJimcat of prisoners of war demanded at 
Washington. 

I was consigned to a casemate, and a sack of straw for my bed. 

As I passed the sally-port, in charge of a corporal, my nam-; wa.s called out, 
and one of a melancholy group of men advanced to meet mc. It was V. of 
Kichmond, but I scarcely recognized him, for his hair had turned gray, and his 
prison attire made him a strange spectacle. " You here !" I exclaimed ;' " how 
long have you been in this prison ?" " Eighteen months /" was the solemn re- 
ply. I had rfcver heard in Richmond of his arrest. But there were other ter- 
rible disclosures for me, which 1 had never heard in Richmond ; which the peo- 
ple had never heard in Richmond ; but which the (lovernmcnt in that Confede- 
rate city, had assuredly heard, and had kept to itself in silence and sxibmission. 

Kidnapped under a neutral flag, on the high seas ; brought as human prize 
into the shambles of lioston : dragged from a sick bed into jfri.on, when once I 
had passed tb.rough the sally-port of Fort Warren, I found a catalogue of mis- 
ery that I never could have supposed to exist even in that most famous of Y£^n- 
kee bastiles. 

Here in this fort, companions of my misfortune, were one hundred and pixtv- 
odd men, the i*»jority of them prisoners for more than a year. In a place face- 
tiously called "tbe gun-boat," I fcuml these men packed in three apartments, 
fifteen by sixteen feet. 

Here, entombed in solitary confinemful, were seven brav: soldiers of the 
Confederacy, taken in Virginia and Tennessee, 

Here, sentenced by a Yankee court-martial to fi/feen 7/ears imprisonment, were 
two Confederate officers. Major Arriiosy and Lieutenant Davis ; thus punished 
for recruiting Confederate ttOOjW in Western Virginia. 

Here, in the QTiarterf allotted to solitary imprisonment, brouglit here in dou- 



34' OESEIIVATIONS IN TUB NOKTH. 

He irons, was Captain Bnittlc, of Wliecier's cavah-y, convenionih' designated as 
a guerrilla, and treated as n felon. 

Here I found slarvaiion tlte uniform discipline of the prison; our rations 
these : one slice of bread for breakfast, one slice of breai and a morsel of pork 
for dinner, one slice of bread for supper — tlic slices so thin tliat one -could al- 
most see through lliem — these and n tin-cup of stinking cistern water eon^pris- 
ing the entire bill pf fare. 

I did not learn those facts without a shudder. How long was I to continue 
here, and the words ^^ hoio long ?" seemed to reverberate- in my heart like a 
knell. I was tg^t sick to eat, and did not go to the eook-housc, where, I was 
already informed, another horrour of my prison awaited me, I ha-*! learned 
enough for one- da^r. As I laid upon my wretehed bed at night, and watched 
the thin slice of moonlit sky, that shone through thec;;r^,ting, my nature seemed 
absorbed with unutterable horrour. 

.The hardships of a prison, its physical restraints, its beggar diet, aic, after 
all, but slight cvil?^, compared with the mental distress (aggravated, in my case, 
by a nervous constitution and diseased body), occasionally taking the form of a. 
morbid agony, as tlic spirit wrestles for liberty. For the first time in my life 
I felt the meaning of this' precious word — no longer now the mere dccmitatum • 
of poetry and sentiment. I had often used it a'S an idle ornament in language, 
but I little knew Wa sweet and hidden meanings of this noble word; how ifc 
signified the vital passion of man's nature, and contained the riclicst jewel of 
h|,s inhcritnuj^e fr'-'m Cod. 



I found in the morning newspapers the anuounoement of my incarccratiou', 
coupled witli such comments as might be expected from the cowardly malignity 
of a Yankee, where its object is a helpless prisoner. The announcement in 
one paper was entiled '-A Brutal Villain." Another sdminist(^ed the follow- 
ing warning: 

"Some stroughulJ like Ihjit in wbifh he has been placed is tiso .-;afe>^t quarters Pollard can 
iin J, as ho is a. doumod. laau among the survIviQ3 prisoners whs bave been released from Ricli- 
Biond." 

But the following in a Pennsylvania paper (Pittsburg Btqxil^'It') was a com- 
plimentary notice, especially to be preserved : 

" To this man's course, unfeeling brutality our mon atWibate no pmall share of the indignities 
and hardehips hedpcd upon them in rachinond, and bis roieo waa never hoard but against theia 



OBSERVATIOXS IX THE NORTH. •;5 

—never r.:'.;;6d KavQ lo iuoukiito the justico or er^j^edieDoy of gome newly ue\i,-oJ Lrutallty. 
He is one of that little band of rualignants who have been engaged, heart aud haisd, for three 
yearF, in tpreading among the ignorant mag.^es of ihe South, the mo?t villaiuons luisrepreaei;- 
tatioii3 or the riovorninent and the Northern people, and who have done more, a.-i journalist', 
CO eustain the rebel cause than regiments of .~oldien> in the Held. For his exoruon^ in this line, 
however, we could afford to trust him to the vengeance of the Government, hnt for his unwM-- 
ranted and unmanly efforts to oppress the already overburdened prisoners in llichniond, we loofe 
to another source for punishment. Our townsman, Colonel Rose, and a eoore of ethers, well 
knoTin and dear to ua, have had a taste of this man'w ("iuality, and we ask for no other salidiac- 
tion than that chance inay favour any one of thew with a momentary meeting. There will as- 
suredly be one educated villaiu less to labour in the rebel cause." 

Of course, ou-e'c! flesh niigbt be espcetcd to tingle at this foul and cowardly 
abuse. Tho next minute a sensible man would be inclined to laugh at it — e,s> 
pecially the valiant threat of Colonel '•'Rase" and other flowers of Yankee 
chivalry. In another moment, reflection would teach him that he w;i:^ compli- 
mented by such evidence of his per.sonal importance, and decorated, as ever;^ 
true Confederate is, by the libel of a Yankee newspaper. 

The suflerings I was to ojidure were to be terrible enough ; but added to thoin 
was the constant smart of Yankee falsehood, which, ignoring the victims of its own 
cruelty, was incessantly publishing the imaginary misery of Federal prisoners 
in llichmond and elsewhere in the Confederacy. One can have an idea of the 
(Smart of this misrepresentation, if ho will imagine a Confederate cut off front 
the world by the walls of a prison, aud compelled to chew his indignation in 
silence, reading every day in Yankee newspapers some new version of '' the bar- 
barities of the rebels," and left to conjecture that the world is induced to be- 
lieve these vile slanders, scattered to the ends of it, without the opportunity of 
any contradiction on the other side. But there is some possible comfort in the 
reflection, that Yankee falsehood in this w^ar has overleaped it'-clf. A people 
who, ravaging tho country of their ueiglibours, burning their houses and pro- 
perty, and stripping the shelter over the heads of women and children, yet en- 
title their adversaries as mvajcs, aud assert themselves champions of civilization j 
who, fighting lor the fourth year an unconquered country, have, in the entire 
history of that war, represented every event as a Yankee success, and a mortal 
blow to the Confedcracjn, are no more credble witnesses in these particulars 
than when thej^paradc before the world their nursery dramas oi the horrours 
of "rebel" prisons. 

A few days before I left Richmond, I had had an accidental occasion to visit 
the Libby Prison, and was politely shown through all its apartments by Major 



36 OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTU. 

Turner, the puperinteDdent. I little imagined then that I would have occasion 
soon to be instituting a comparison between my observations there and my expe- 
riences in the casemates of Fort Warren. 1 found the inmates of the former 
place, which lias obtained such fearful notoriety in the North, somewhat re- 
stricted in space — the' necessity of which restriction may be easily understood 
when it is known that there is such lack of house-room in Richmond, that 
every buildiug in it is packed from cellar to garret, and entire families are often 
found to live ia a single ro(tm ; but the prisoners had comfortable bunks and 
long aisles stretching through the building, gave them the opportunltj of exer- 
ercise. These aisles wore neatly swept by negro servants, who, broom in hand, 
were going through the building cleansing it, and thus relieving the prisoners of a 
disagreeable oiTice. I learned that the prisoners were constantly receiving comforts 
and delicacies from the North ; that they drew their pay regularly from the 
Washington G-overnmcnt ; and that traffic in " greenbacks" being prohibited 
in Richmond, and it being necessary for the prisoners to convert their funds 
into Confederate moiic}', our Government had, by a strained and punctilious 
generosity, put itself in the anomalous position of rating the enemy's currency 
in prisoners' hands at eighl or ten times its own. I was struck by an abundance 
of pastimes in the Libby, that I was not prepared to see in a prison. Here 
were Northoru newspapers and pictorials strewn around ; cards, cribbage boards, 
dominoes, setts of games and other expedients to "kill iime." The walls were 
garnished with sugar-cured hams, jars of .pickles and delicacies long since for- 
gotten in the homes of llichuiond. I was amused to see prisoners sopping sweet- 
meats out of glass jars. I remember the remark I made on leaving the Libby 
and parting rath Major Turner: I said to him that I had not been aware that 
there was so much luxury inside of Richmond. 

I am not attempting extravagance, but fairly stating the results of personal 
observation, when I declare tliat I found many of the prisoners of the Libby 
living better in point of creature co:u forts, tl'an somi-^ of our cabinet ministers 
in Richmond. Yet these men invariably go jack to the North with stories of 
martyrdom in their mouths. A committee is appointed to make a report of 
their sufferings to Christendom. It gives a general invitation to those who will 
tell the hardest lies to indulge themselves witheut the fear of contradiction or 
cross-questions. It offers -^ premium for '*' raw-head and bloody-bones" stories, 
which may be told entirely at the pleasure of any liar or woulw-be-martyr, and 
with unlimited freedom in his vocation. It selects from sick prisoners returned 
to them, those consumed by fever or attenuated by chronic disease, bolsters 
them up on their beds, takes their photographs, and binds them in an official 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE NUKTH. 3^ 

volume as the pictures of victims of "■' starvation" in Confederate dungeons.^ 
Is it possible, indeed, that such flimsy devices of falsehood can impose upon the 
sympathies of the intelligent. . 

Thus the Committee on '•' rebel barbarities " prompts s. vyitness from the Libby : 
»' Were you not often very hungry ? " " Hungry ! " replies the witness, as if 



* We bare seen, as these pages ii.re going through the press, an e.;-po.s^5 in a Ritihaioud paper 
of the eniel lie of the Yankee, It refers to an exchange of sick prisoners made in the fall of 
1864: 

" The mortality among our unfortunate pri.^oners sent by sea to Savannah to be exchanged 
WES very remarkable. We have published a liat of 117 who died on the passage to Savannah ; 
ftlso a list of 32 who died within a few days after being landel. Distressing u-j is this mortality,, 
the Confederate newspapers have not been so inconsiderate as to impute it to a wrong cause. — 
Revolting at the shocking inhumanity which limits exchanges to the siek, the feeble and the 
dying, we have received home our brethren, emaciated as they i,re with long protracted disease, 
and we have wondered not that so many died, but that so many, travelling in .such a conditioi.. 
ahould live. 

"We have sent to the truce boat a similar class of the Federal prisoners in our hands; itf is for 
those only that the Yankees have bargained. When the pjor creatures reach them, worn and 
wasted by i^ickness, and evidencing, in their appearance, that they should be in the hospitals 
instead of travelling, in place of the sense of shame which the Yankee authoriiies and people 
should feel at the consequences of their inhuman policy, with suah audacious hypocrisy as a 
Yankee only c»\\ manifest, they seize the occasion to calumniate the Confederates, a reluctant 
party to a commerce worse than "the middle passage," and only Ijetter than protracted impris- 
onment. They pretend to consider tho rerurned men as samples of those who have been left 
behind: they charge their weakness and emaciation to starvation, and not to sickness; they 
clamor like so many howling dervishes ; and with an eErontery that the world beside cannot 
equal, they extract self-gloriiication out of'tbeir own crime, anl heap reproaches on us who are 
its victims ^ 

^ We know tliat their treatment of our prisoners is horrible erioagh. We know that of delib- 
erate and systematic villainy, and without pretense of necessity, they torture the unfortunate 
soldiers who fall into their hands. Wo know, that in cool, liendish calculation, they are kept 
in many of the prison houses under the torment of continuiil Iringer. But much as wo execrate 
such conduct, and tlie people who can pnictisc it, we respect oarfelves too much to slander 
them. We do not pretend that the sick men who are sent home to us are samples of the rest. 
We are not so false a^ to represent their emaciation as due to starvation and not to disease. — 
Multitudes of the poor sufferers die, as we have seen, on their way to our lines. Many die be- 
fore we can take them to our arms. Many die before wo can get them into our hospitals ; and 
many there languish and die without a sight of tho home for whi:h they risked the travel. In 
all our distress at this mortality, we are cnndid enough to reoogni:;o the cause, and to tell the 
truth amid our resentments. Not so the Yankees. Their morals make it a merit to lie against 
their enemies, and sp far from being restrained by self-respe:t, they a"re made zealous by self- 
felicitations. We trust the world understands them by this tioie." 



•)8 OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

that word "was completely inndequate to Ids recollections. " Why, I tell you. 
some of our boys used to get things from home, an'd when they threw the bone? 
into the spit-boses, others of us used to be watching to pick them out and gnaw 
them over again." 

The Committee is delighted ; and the story of the acaveagcr goe.<= to the Yan- 
1^20 newspiipers as a tid-bit of (Confederate atrocity. 



To the KufFeringa of my fir^t days in Fort Warren my inemory reverts with 
an irrepressible shudder. If I had been in health I might easily have endured 
the hardsliips assigned me, including the straw sack, the diaphanous slices of 
bread and the bits of fat pork. But the nervous affection from which I had 
long suffered, and which was now aggravated by the anxieties and rude trials of 
iraprisonTtient, liad taken an alarming aspect. A partial paralysis of my body 
{lircatericd to succeed. I could not rise from my ]:»cd or from a long sitting 
without finding my arm, or perhaps my whole side, temporarily powerless. 

The kindness of my fellow-prisoners, in these circumstances, is never to be 
forgotten. I was relieved from my part of cooking and washing dishes, and 
was excused from 'Hhe police duty" assigned to prisoners, wliieh included the 
cleansing of their quarters and a number of unpleasant tasks. My moss-mates 
came to my aid with friendly sympathy. I obtained medical advice from Dr. 
Hambleton, of Georgia, my fellow- prisoner and excellent friend. Although i 
had but little faith in the justice or humanity of the Government at Washing- 
ton, I thought it could scarcely insist upon .torturing me, and would be satisfied 
to secure my person. I had applied for a parole on account of my health, but 
in vain had I waited for a reply. I had never, even, been allowed to see the 
order committing me to Fort Warren; and it seemed that the authorities had 
not been willing to spare me any agony of doubt or suspense. 

I had bocu in prison nearly a fortnight, when I wrote the following letter to 
Washington : 

Fort Wa?»ren, Boston Hakbour, June, 1854. 

Mr. Gidco/i Welles, Secretart/ of the United States Kavn : 

Sir : On the 10th of last month, T was taken one hundred and fifty miles 
out at sea on a British vessel, where I was simply a citizen-passenger, unoon- 
Beeted with any public service of the Confederate States, and subject to none 
of the military penalties of your GoYcrnment. Other paiSsengcrs were released. ; 



O-ISSERVATIOXS IN THE NORTH. 39 . 

1, alone, of all the fcliij/a company, an iunoccnt passenger, was doomed to Fort 
Warren. T was token from a sick bed to be brought here. In these harsh and 
invidious circumstance.s, I asked but a parole on account of desperate health : 
the bare eoneession of the plainest hum:«iity. fSincc my cunfincmcnt here, ] 
have had ati attack of partial paralysis. It is now only left for mo to declare U) 
your conscience and to the Bympatby of tltc world — not in terms of importunity 
or any more person&l (lisrcspect, but in tlie spirit of a solerau conviction — that 
I am being murdered by an imprisonment, the object of which is not to secure 
my person (since I offered to do this by an inviolable pledge of honour) but to 
punish an enfeebled bodj", and sharpen the torture of a discrisc that claims pity 
for its helplessness. ■ • 

I am, etc., Edw'i' A. Pot.laki*. 

To this letter I never received a word of reply or sign uf hoed. I was left 
to inia^i^ine the Yanlcee authorities cliucklin;;' with dcvclish satisfaction to know 
how their victim v.-as piueercd avA esenh.iialcd with iha tortures they had 
invented. 



CHAPTER V. 

Journal Notes in rrcison.— rrecioua Tributes of Sympathy. — Porti-ait of the Yankee. — A 
New England Shepherd. — SufTcrings und Reflection?. — Fourth of Ji^ly in Fort Warren. 

June 17. — The hours weigh heavily nytoii rac. In my imprisonment and 
sickness I have yet much to be thankful for, espeeially in the assiduous and 
cheerful attentions of my fellow-prisoner, Doctor Ilambleton. The pastimes in 
our prison-life are meagre enough. Koading the newspapers and eviscerating 
Yankee falsehoods are our chief employments. 

The good friends I have made in Boston have not forgotten me, and I have 
frequent occasion to acknowledge their kindness in missives of sympathy and 
occasionally of '' material" comfort, in articles of food banished by "orders 
from Washington " from the slop-boards of our cook-bouse. Whatever thoughts 
I have of the cruel despotism at Washington and of those masses of population 
subject to it, my h^art must always retain grateful and faithful memories oi 
those few in a strange land who administered to my sorrow, and dared an ex- 
pression of sympathy for me, when in the l)onds of prison and disease. 

I have a valued and interesting correspondence with some noble ladies in 
Boston, whom I liave never seen, but whoss names arc known to sevei-al of the 
prisoners here, v.ho have had various tokens of their sympathy. The corres- 
pondence in my case commenced with a present of delicious fruit, to v^hich the 
card of the donor was attached. The charity of tliese ladies, and, more than 
all, the sentiments which have sweetened it, are trca.-^ured in the hearts of many 
prisoners here, and they may be sure that wlien the name and freedom of our 
beloved country shall no longer be disputed, their deeds will lind a public re- 
cord somewhere and be rewarded with conspicuous gratitude. 

Be4"ore this war I had lived several years in "Washington and in New York ; 
but from all the herd of my acquaintance' in the N'<^rth I have not yet had one 
line of sympathy or of remembrance. 

Yet I have had letters from siravjcrs-^amon^ them dear, noble countrywo- 
men of mine in the enemy's lines — which have touched my heart with inexpres- 
sible gratitude and pride. 



OBSERVATIONS L\ THE \ORTH. 41 

I had been iu pjl^ou but a few days when I received from Mrs. General 
— , of Kentuckj, ;i stranger to mc, but tbc name of whose gallant husband, j 



fallen on one of the bright fields of the war, lives in the glorious memories of 
the Confedcraey, a letter of s^'mpathy, subscribed, ''a sincere though unknown 
friend." '•' Do you need aid ?" wrote this generous lady. " And will you bo 
allowed to vecoivo any from 5-our /rknds? It woild be a pleasure to relieve 
your wants as far as wc can." 

Yesterday I, received a letter v/hieh is >.o remarkable, that I cannot forbear 
transcribing here soror; passages from it, and taking the liberty of adding the 
name of the writer— a liberty, I think, which a grateful memoir must admit, 
unless there is good rcas;on to the eontrary : 

rKACIUEVILI/L, PrKC C'OUNTY, MISSOURI, | 

Jmb 12th, 1804. j 

Mr. Edward A. Po/hrd, (of (l'i'chrji.ond,*'Va:): 

I see from the papers that you aro'a prisoner of war at Fort Warren. Al,l 
prisoners need the attention of their friends. Though entirely unknown to you, 
I have still the hono;ir to he a. Virtjirdim, and love from a sense of duty all of 
her worthy .^ons. If yon nrcd inoney, clothes, or any thing, write immediately 
and inform me, with directions to whose cave to send them. I have a holy ven- 
eration for my ^lotlier iStatc, a^id if I i'ailed to do any thing in iwy power for 
her brave dons, I would feci that I had neglected a religious duty. . AH of my 
relatives, except my f.'^lher's immediate family, are in the "Old Dominion." I 
have had a brother at C'.inip Chase, and a <:<iusin at Johnson's Island, and have 
cause to know how comforting an}- sympathy is to the prisoner. Do not forgei. 
that you have many warm friend;: iu Mis.souri, and in my.self a faithful one. 
So do not fail to lot me know if you with any thing. I think, sir, that we par- 
take of the independent spirit t«f our mother, and do not like to receive any 
thing from stranger.^; but you kijc.w Vir-ini;+Ti5 are not strangers,- but brother-* 

and sisters wherever they are fonnd .... 

Kate B. WooDRorr. 

Sweet lad}', God bless yo,u ! I vrrotethat I wasi in no such need as to tax the 
generosit}' of friei^ds ; that the letter of my fair correspondent was itself a trea- 
sure ; that I Wii.'^ proud to have :^uGh a countrywoman. To think t]:at she had 
written to :i, desolate prboncr i}\w^ from her distant home, with that hearty and' 
persistent offerfof a-si«tanee, .^n unlike cheap sympathy, so really anxious to 
oblige I Well may Virginia herself be proud of such a daughter ! The fra- 
grance of many a womanly deed breather through the gorgeous wreath Virginia 
4 ' . 



43 OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

lias cntwiued iu tLis war, and among these we would place tiii:- Irllv^te of Slial 
love from dititaut Missouri. 



June 18. — Tiic ioUowiag is an excellent picture of presout Vaakee society, 
wbich I came across to-day, iu an odd book, which gave f^ome accouut of France 
under the rule oi Hcury III. : 

" There w»a no riiore truth, no more ,ia.''tice, no more msrey. To plandor. to lie, to rob, to 
woBch, to steal ; a!l things are permitted suve to do right and gpcak the trath." 

What a perfect dclitieatiou of Wat-hingtoo and New York at the precent day I 



June 19. — The third Sabbath in iny granite pn.^^ou. Some one has had such 
care for the souls of Confederate prisoners na to have distributed among us a 
number of trade, it^sued by the American Tract Sociery, 2>^ Coruhill, Boston. 
I have just finished reading one of them, entitled ''Love Your Enemie*'' — 
fl characteristic Bpoeinien of the PuriLan (Christianity of the Yankee, the blas- 
phemy and hrag of which have filled me with horronr and disgust. 

The writer, evidently one of the pious spitfires of New England, seSv- out with 
a terrible deuuuciation of tlie Confederacy, and with ch.aracteristic regard for 
historical truth, describes the. Confederates a? outraging our [Yankee] "kindred," 
ttnd " lurking in traitorous ambush at our [Yankee] door-postgi." He then 
speake of ''their threats and eurpes, their outburstH of furious fiend-like pa;>:uon.'"' 
After thit^ very Chrit^tian vituperation, and mercl!e,^s vindication of the truth of 
histoi7, our clerical friend encounters the question, how it is po^iLIe to pray 
that the wrath of the Lord be poured out iipon tho (■onfcderates, and yet'to 
retain Chri.^lian love for the pevH'm of their rebellion^ neighbouiT^. And he eur- 
mounta the difficulty bravely. The cau.'^e of the Yankee '' is the cau^-e of 
God," and to pray for the dePtructic*n of the encroie;-; of the Yankee is " to di- 
vest themselves of all personal and merely human considerations" for (Jod's 
glory, and to sink the love of the neighbour in the higher dutie.'^ of the Divine 
service. Tliin uior.^el of pious logic and Puritan clcrity is put in the following 
words : , . 

"David recognized in his* foe.? the foes of Jehovah and his chiirch, and 
" planting him^^elf by the very side of God, divinely inspired, "he invoked the 
" moat teiTiblc calamities, the most complete ruin, even eternal evil, upon his ad- 
'* versarie:-:. Our eau;-e, too, h the cause of God : our foes the opposes of thc-sc 



CfBSEHVATIONH IN THE NORTH, 4,^; 

^^ principles of eternal truth, justice, and rifihteonsnesR, whicli ;siL"tain fhedmne 
" iidministration. ])ut do we stfiud, wlien; Pavid did, iu unity with the divine 
*'niind and will, moved by the same pure and holy impulses, equally divested of 
*' all personal and merely haman considerations ? If so, then we, toe, ia calni, 
•' holy, fervent supplication, may pray, < liender unto our neighbours sevenfold 
-' into their bosom the reproach wherewith they have reproachcxl thee Lord V '' 
Has any one ever found anythin2; more characteristic of New England Ghru- 
tianity than this passage — a mixture of old Puritan self-righteousne-sa aad mo • 
•Jorn lying, that might refresh the appetite of the Infernal! Concocted, probar 
My, by some fellow who nurses his white dainty flesh with laf-e neckclotliB, aad 
-•pits piou> venom in some fashionable church. 



Juhf I. — I was uUu wed to-day to see a physician ffom Bo&ton, 

«ho accompanied my sister, under a permit from General Dix. 

This visit has been a precious occasion to me, and I trust, ha.s improved jnj 
rcKolutiou to suffer with as little complaint as possible. Evtn imprisonment h 
not without its compensations and uses ; is not necessarily a blank in one's life. 
We learn noble virtue^ in prison, for it is a severe school whore we are taught 
to moderate our dc-iroo and to confrctnt misfortunes with that defiant patience, 
which more than all constitutes the force of character and t«^;sts the mna. 

" To safier, as to do, our streiigtli is equal." 

There is compcnr-avion, too, in the reflection that my imprixonraent is la tha 
name of my country, and that wliat I suffer is a sacrifice for it. It La true 
we all must contributtj to the cause of our country in some forpi or other- 
tad how little have I over contributed to it, that I should begrudge this suffer- 
ing in its name, and how many more deserving than myself, with Eiutilated 
limbs or broken hearts;, have yet virtue to thank God that they haVe been able 
thus to testify their principles I These are salutary thoughts, whioh should 
chaat6a my pride and impatience, and teach me how little and unworthy I am, 
fo resent the fortuune which h.K- made me a prisoner. 



Fourth of July. — Captain Muiden, of South Cajolina, a felk>w-pnjOflei*s h&'j 
celebrated the day by the following lines, entitled "The Confederate Oath," 



_(4 " OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

which Wu liSTo uli "taken." It is given as a spoeiineQ ol' tiie Foit Wmix-o 
>Inse, iicd as a «;ntiineat appropriate to " the day we eoleljrato" : 

Aye, raise aloft tbat gory pall 

Of Freedom's bleeding corse, 
While craven minions, shouting all, 

Its iafamy indorae. 
Gape, caauon, your infernal throats. 

Belch at the despot's word, 
\7hile Liberty's expiring notes 

Are in thine echoes heard. 
Blow winds, from these accursed walls. 

And to the world proclaim 
How wronged, insulted Freedom call? 

To stay the branding shnme. 
Tell of the rights our fathers claimed, 

And claiming, dared maintain. 
Tall of the deeds in history famed. 

Which broke the tyrant's chain. 
Then, toll again, how Avarice sapped 

The faae to Freedom reared : 
How L'jst, in false religion i^apped, 

To boasting minds appeared. 
And let thy breath the poison bear 

Of Pnritanio guile, 
And in thy voice let nations hoar 

The bowlings of the vile. 
Aye, hoisi that foul, di-ihonoured fiagj 

While truckliEg milJions bow, 
Aad ki,=s ihe rod, the chain, and gag, 

ITphf'ld is terrour now. 

.\nd wo, who soe, and hear, and fee!, 

That mociery of this day, , 

Shall WE, in servile cringing, knee!, 

And own the despot's sway? 
N^o, by the rights our sires won. 

No, by the rights we claim. 
No, while our wrathful blood may ruE, 

No, in our country's name, 
No, by our fields of wasted grain, 

^0, by our smoking walls, 
.N'o, by the Vandal -trodden plain, 

Our sack'd and ruined halls! 
JBrifig from each corner of the land. 

The deiaon's waste and wreck, 



OBSERVATIOxNS IN THE NORTH. 

Brlcg ninrderous a3:e, and gmoking brand. 

1h^ hateful pile to deck. 
"rhdQ think upon tho widow's wail, 

Tliiak of the maidcij'B toar, 
Taink of each wrong fc'jh Pontbora gala 

Brings to your siekc.'i.:'^ ear : 
ihea bj each stroke ; thea by oncb thrusL 

"Which caused one anguished ihrill ; 
Taea hj eaoh deed of hato and luat. 

Each fceart-recorde'J ill : 
I'hen pwe»r while Hfc'e rt^d current fl«ws, 

V/'hilu flint can yield the epark, 
While ara can nerve for vengeful blow?, 

Or bullet reach it 3 mark, — 
New England':- 'u:'t, Now England's greed, 

Keed seek no Southern sky; 
9fiiile powder burns, or kaife can bleed, 

■^lio seeks onr soil mast die ! 
f 



OHAPTEE VI. 

Je'OJiJtAi Norss {J-:iNii-.aEJ). — Life in the C<i.i'emat-ee. —How ihe Yaukbtcr' treiii Toreigner^. — 
vfOTjAora " Arl'A<xr&/yy." — Friends iu Bvi-L<.k.— Mas?aehu?9tte "Chiralrj.''' — '•ll&.re we'a Gcv^rr.. 

Julj/ 5.- —We have' quiie a mixed lot of prbcQcr.? here. The officers imd 
crewe of the Atla'-ite and Taeony arc eouliaed here, and to Captain Webb of tbt' 
ilrat, and Lleutenaut Reed of the latter, I am paticularly indi^bted for mueli en- 
^jerlaiBzaent acd kindness. To tell the truth, it is not often you hear intcIHgeiit 
conversation amocg associates in a prison, or obtain any oxperience of small 
conrtesies 3 .selHshuef^s, stupidity, vacancy of mind; are nio?t frequently the r«- 
gxilts of tli.! har^K and scanty life within the eaeemat-es, ualo.-'s one should Is'ip- 
T>6n to have been bred a gentleman. 

Sut I have been raost fortunate in my rne:-;;:-, sad I have set to to notice uny 
iugbance of bickering or of ^elfish overveaehiiig amaag us. Yet we have plenty 
ox pleaiBant eontrovcr,-y. My good friend 3Iarrs (eagsiu>er oi' the ill-fated Cuba), 
keeps us all alive with his constant intention of "ralsinar h — 1" : a vague threat 
T^hich f hiive never yet seen him put iuto pri^ctical cseciition, for he really hm^ 
x\ amiable s:ad generou.-e sentiment for civerything but ilio Yi'ukee. OGptaJR 
E.bck rtv'ulfl the nevrspa per aloud e^■ory night, RZki Murr.-i punctiuite..? witli hen- 
tcntloxia exclamations. Then we hwv*.; the invariable quarrel of each night about' 
shutting window.^ and putting out ihe light?, tw-> proeeedings which al-^rajsgiv-e 

Tise to differences o'f opinion, Marrs must have everything read of the '' d d 

Yankees," or miLst have Captain Murden recite his c-omjwsition of 2>atj'iot!.e jpo^;- 
try foT tho day, before ho can compose himself to ttlcop. Vihii-h he at ?a':t dj>n^ 
T/ith objiixgulionis n6t to be mentioned to cars pC'litc. 



Jii2i/ ^].-— Thci't; are various devices hero to induce priL-^jin-n? tr, iswaliow <tih-L. 
oath of Yaukeo allegiance. The most infamous is tliat praetv=-cd up<'n the fbrelgn.. 
♦iTfl, "who have been taken on privateers or running the blockade, aj:id wiio- 
throtigh :>.he ofic<e.a of tlieir codsuI:^ iu New York and i>o-stvii, liave bern alTcfed 



OBSERVATIONS I\ TIK NORTH. 47 

their r'^lease on condition of taking the Yankee oath of all<^2;ianoe, and ciinol;- 
ing it by enlistment in the Yankee army or navy. 

In fact, there appear to bo nMie of the rights of alienage recognized in Yan- 
kee jurisdiction. One mu.'^t " holler" for thu Union under all circumstances. 
In connectlou with these compulsory tests applied to foreigners, who are in the 
unfortunate category of blockade-runners, &c , I may supply the following par- 
agraph, which I read some days ago in a letter from Washington, published in 
a New York paper : 

'• It appoBra that the rebel authorities again allow aliens to pass through their lineg, ae quite 
a large number of these refugees have reached this city within the past fevr days. To-Jty 
eighteen presant-ed themselves at the provost-msrftharrt otiioe, and took the OBth of allegianee." 

So, the-io men, who=!e neutral righta had been respected in the Confederacy, 
find, on reaching Washington, that it is necessary or convenient for them to 
take the Yankee oath of allegiance. It would seem, indeed, thai the Yankeo-s 
have assumed the task of annexing all nations to their polificul formulas, over-* 
riding all the predilections of foreigners and cuntrolling the 'sympathies of the 
world. The arbiters of civilization, the bullies of all Christendom, the cox- 
combs of creation, they demand everything to give way as Mr. Lincoln " runs 
his machine" and dispenses the wisdom and bounty of '* the best government 
the world ever saw." 



Jul^ 7. — Wc had quite a discussion in our mc^s today. ()Qe of the com- 
pany remarked that in South (,'arolina a mechanic was not rcsjv^cted as he should 
be. I took occasion to advance some peculiar opinions of my own : That the 
democracy at the North was an utterly false one, being an insolent assertion of 
equality, a sort of " d — n you, I am as good as you arc," which placed two 
classes in society in an exasperated and bitter contest that was consAiitly goin^- 
oa in Yankeedom beneath the outward semblance of its social laws : that this 
insolent democracy Was especially the product of free schools, that educated the 
population ju.st to the point of irreverence and egotism; that in the South'there 
was to be found the most perfect democracy io the world ; that there was a vol- 
untary and tacit acknowledgment of distinctions in Southern society (hence 
the conservatism of this part of America), and that, this difference cnce implied, 
the intercourse between the different clasocs was unrestricted and genial, with ti 
a pleasant admission of equality iu all respects where equality was to be pro- 
perly admitted. Th'c^c propositions might be expanded into illu.=tration and fir- 



[S 0£5?-RYAriONS IN THE NORTE, 

gument enough to make a bcok. But surely any oqc who Lnows anythiu^ of the 
South mu8t Lave observed the easy and pleasant intercourse between its social 
daBses, in which the huiinl'lert 5« treated withvpolitc respect, &ou>uch incoutrast 
to those inpulting assunipiif'n? on the one hand and bro\?beating on the other, 
which make up Yankee rsockty. Where a laboring man "\yould, in the North, 
bo dtopped at the door of the rich by a servant, and lidd at arm's length in any 
intercourse the patron might find necegsary with him, in the South, he could 
at Irtiijit get a Io;nd receptioa — ^ertaiHly, would be treated with much more real 
respect than bj the anste'cnJii'' Yankee with Tvhoni Iio contents tlie claim of 
equality a (' fr?tternitv. 



July 8. — I have received to-day a gratifying Ictte"' from one ••.•£ my lady 
friends in Uoston. She writer: 

*•■ Remember'-that jcu are tc count ug among your frIenJs ; and w^'at is the use of frieudB, if 
you will net give them the privilege of ministering to you in prieoa. Send to us for anything 
jou need. Wc are of the ■prr.ctiaal r-tjlp, and our fingors and foet, «:•< ■well aa oar headis and 
hearti, arc at your service." 

Such testjrnonief of r-'i^'patbr illuminate the priii'ju, iiud make U;? think more 
kiadl^ of the world outside. God knows how my life in this Yankee Bastile 
v/as embittered with disea-se, and tortured by the crueltieis of a government that 
domed me the commonest comforts. But mixed up with this wretched life our 
grateful remembrance of kindness unexpected and undeserved, which i cached 
me, as far as it was able to defy the interdictions of official malice.'*' 



*I may append hare a pei^aliafly wpjoonie letter from on<? of thoae ladies in Boston to whom 

I hiiVf nfiiirod— oni-'j indeed, of the ■yy.-:{cti<:(xl nryU-, cunsidei'ing the gift which ai'cotupanied it. 

My Dear M.-. PoUard : 

I have great pleasure in i?endtng tc' yen a bottle of genuine bcctch wLieky, which came from 
Eothesay, for ug — the gift of a bonnie laddie, of ^ horn vre are ■^ery fond. Do you remember, 
fcomo yea s'Rgo, ;i very clever thing in Blackwood, called "Father Tdai aud the Pope?" 
in Father Tom'.'i own words, I will only SRy— " if you'll just thry the full or a thimble ov it, 
und it doepn't rise the cocides o' yonr heart, why then my name isn't Tom Maguire." And hy- 
th^-bj, I have a copy in pamphlet form of that samp, irbich I will lead you. It will be capital 
/(/» for a hot day. Would yotj like it I This is really hot Wjatber, is it notr' To-day one 
would like to follow Sydney iSmith's advice, to take off cno's tiesh and sit in one's bonts. I 
aopo you are getting better. Is there any chance of your Eettiug a parole, and coming up to 
the city? It is bad enough fo be among strangers, within prii.'OD willy, when one is well and 
atroug. With .ill my heart, I sympathire with you, in your weary and depressing illness — away 
from home and friends. If there \>' any .=ervice we can render you, wc shall be most happy to 
do SO; :ind I bt j^ thiit you wiii ci.unt xtn among your frioadtt, ii'.i j^ive ua tiie j.ui\ liege. 
IlC'uj"."; with Warm resjard. 



OBSERVATIOXS IN THH .NORTH. 49 

July 14. — The Yankee newspapers we have got liere, for several days past. 
have been in an incessant gabble about Early's and Breckinridge's invasion of 
Maryland. Ajjropos, here is a good "slap" at Matjsacliasetta from a New 
York paper : " The Boston Journal, in a fit of heroics, waaLs to know how far 
an invading army of Confederates could march Into Massachusetts. That would 
depend upon the time allowed the officials of that State to visit Kentucky and 
recruit.'' 



July 15. — There is one question here constantly on the lips, or in the medi- 
tations of the prisoners. It is, " Have we a Government V We do not hear 
of any thing done by the llichuiond authorities in behalf of tens of thousand^" 
of Confederate prisoners, and wo arc left starkly and desperately to the contic- 
gencics of the future. 

We know very well that it is not the fault of our Governuient that an ex- 
change of prisoners is not made. Such an exchange has been estopped by the 
choice and action of the Yankees j acd in doing so^ this vile and sinister people 
have effected one of the most barbaro'us peoallies of war — captivity. Such a 
penalty m opposed to the spirit and humanity of the age ; ib civilized war, the 
only object of taking prisoners is to exchange thAm. certaij^ly not to condemn 
them to the i-avage horrours of captivity. 

But, then, although our government is acquitted of the noa-e:s;eeution of the 
cartel, and this brutal infraction of civilized usage, why does it not manifest 
what concern it cau for its prisoners, in some substantial acts of retaliation for 
the intolera}j!e and terrible atroeiiica attendant on their imprisonment. This i» 
where the question pinches. It is, with respect to outrages upon its prisoners 
fhat the Coufcdcratc Governnient has most abundant occasion and opportunity 
for rotaliation ; and it is with I'espect to thirrtlutt it ha'^ d^'Ue le:?:; to satisfy jus- 
' tice and vindicate the rights of belligerent. 

There is a piti:d)le page of sophistry and wciknosfi iu the rQ,cord« of this war. 
It id the hiriory of Jefferson I'avi.s' policy of retaliation. While that history 
lias afforded no instance of a single substantial act of retribution, it is replete 
with pretair.ts of such, designed to conciliate the popular demand for retalia- 
tion, and to impose upon the world an appearance of spirit. 

These pr<leaccs have been silly enough. Some days ago I read In the news- 
j;^ap-?rs, thai the authorities at riijhmond had placed certain Yar»keo prisoners 
in a hoiL^c in Charleston, in retaliation for the attempted bombardment of a citj 



50 OBSKRVATIONS IN THE NORTE. 

still iahabitou by ■women and children. "W^hat nonsense ! The peril of tlie 
prisoner is imaginary, when women and children walk the streets where they 
are pJaced without fear ; yet it is a convenient text for the Yankee on the subject 
of " rebel barbarities," and an occasion, perhaps, for a prejudice against us, 
wherein wo profit nothing. 

The subject of ^"ankee prisons is theme enough for reialisition. There are in 
this fort, condemned to solitary confinement, certain Confederate prisoners, 
whose terrible doom calls loudly for the interpositiou of their GoverBment, and 
illustrates how that Government has stultified itself by s«bmi:^sion tc» the claims 
of the Yankee to enact the part of magktraie over those whom the fate of war / 
has placed in their liands. I have been enabled to obtain some facts about the&e 
unhappy men. 

CASE Oy MAJOR ARMESi", .40. 

Major Thomas D. Armesy was formerly a private in the Thirty-first Virginia, 
regiment. He had raised a company in Western Virginia, near Clarksburg, 
and having turned this over to the (confederate service, went back in the spring 
of 18(jo, commissioned to raise a battalion in this part of Virginia. William F. 
Gordon, the adjutant of his old regiment, alw took a part in this recruiting ser- 
vice, and was com'tnissioned a captain in Armesy's battalion. 

In April, 18(>o, Arrnesy, Gordon, and Lieutenant HarrJ-s were captured by 
the Yankees in the houses where .they were staying. They hsd taken the pre- 
t^aution to destroy their muster rolls, and to appoint a reudezvoua for their re- 
cruits outside of the enemy's lines of occupation. 

Armcsy and Davis were taken to Fort Norfolk (near Norfolk, Va.), thence to 
Fortress Monroe, apparently for exchange; when they were sud<ienly ordered 
back to Fort McHenry in October, 1863. 

They were tried by a Yankee court-martial. They wer.: charged Fith re- 
cruiting in "Western Virginia, a part of the Southern Confedci-acy, represented 
in its Congress, and, though overrun by the enemy, yet, legally, by the act of 
secession of the State, and by the express organization of our revolution, withia 
the Confederate jurisdiction. There was but a single specification to the charge: 
The officml order of the War Department of the Confederate States, authoris- 
ing the recruiting service in which Armcsy had hccn cvgaged. On this charg-e 
and specification Armesy and Davis were sentenced to ffiom years xmprison- 
ment at hard lahour. 

A yet more terrible judgment was reserved for Gordon, who had also been 
confined at Fort McHenry. He was sentenced fco be shot. On the day ap- 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 52 

pointed for hia execution m the fort, the brave Confederate had taken leave <(>:^ * 
hia family, and liad been marched out, carrying his shroud under his anr.,, 
with a dauDtleas air, when an order came from Washington, revoking the | 
sentence. [ 

The dontonce of Arme^y and Davis was executed by putting them to th« dir- 
tiest and vilest work in the fort, cleaning sinka, &c. They were subyequentlj 
traasferrcd to Fort Delaware, and thence they were brought to thii; fort; thei" 
•jentence being bo far moditied as to require them to serve out their term of fif- 
teen years in soh'-iari/ covjinemeHt. ' * 

MORE "felons" in rORT WAREEN. 

I was requested by a fellow-prisoner in Fort Warren to communicate- somT' 
facta in his ca^e to the Confederate Coverumout, and also to the a?ithoritic8 o: 
the Slate of Virginia, David W. S. Knight -tvas a member of the Twenty-fifth 
Virginia regiment, and on the 13th of August, 1S62, was duly discharged from 
.-K'Tvice. lie theb made hia home in Stafiord county. On the 17th of March, 
1861, while pursuing hi'^ quiet avocations as a citizen of Virginia, a peaceable 
man in hia own homo, he wa<j taken by the Vankees, and ehargtd with th*-? 
murder of one of their number, whom Knight had killed two years ago, whes 
a Confederate soldier, and on picket duty as such. Knight had killed an enemy 
who approached his post, and attempted to overpower and capture him, and, in 
fact, waa censured by his colonel for allowing an enemy to get fco close to hU 
picket line. He way treated by hi.-5 captors as a felon, kept iu close confinemen'. 
in the Old Capitol prLsop as a murderer, and sent thence tb Fort Warren, wher- 
he awaita whatever fate the enemy may assign him. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Epis<Sr«23 3S Pkjso!?. — ;V Cousci! in tha Caserns';???. — Aa Atistapt to Escape. 

Ju{i/ 16. — There hits been a commofcion in the prisoners' quarters in this fort 
to-d:iy that eo far exceeds the even routine of our days that it is entitled to a 
separate chapter, and, indeed, to a train of important reflection. 

It appears that some days ago the Boston Courier had pubiished a certain re- 
port that Major Cabot, the commandant here, had punished Confederate prison- 
era by compc Uing tlvem to carry billets of wood on the ram|)arts. The report 
>7a3 untrue. It wa.-^ contradicted by Major Cabot in the Jo'urnal. Thus the 
affair had passed out of mind when the followieg extraordinary publication, in 
the wor?t Aboliticn paper in Eor-{':-n, fell upon us this morning like a bomb- 
jihell : 

Fort Warken, July 18, 1864. 
Major S. ( 'ahot : ' 

.Dear Sir: We wore truly mortified this evening on reading the Boston Jonr- 
■nal, that you had been obliged to deny the slanderous attack — evidently in- 
tended upon ycur character — this being the onlj/ fort in Boston harbour whereiE 
•' Confederate prisoners " are confined. 

We feel it v.ot only a duty, but as aa act of justice to yourself to deny em- 
j.'haticaliy the truthfulness of the communication which appeared in the Courier 
of yesterday. < ver the signature of ♦N^. J. F., purporting to be founded " upon 
the most ample authority." On the contrary, there are a very large number of 
•' ConfedersN^ prisoners " who have been under your .charge for more than 
twelve mnn;.ii3, and, we have always received at your hands nought but kindness 
and every attention and privilege consistent with the proper duties of your posi- 
tion. I have been requested by the prisoners to state that if you deem it neces- 
;-,-2ry, you are at liberty to publish this letter. 

In behalf of the prisoners under your charge, I have the honour to be, ver^ 
r..?pectrul]7., yGur«; a'c, 

Prisoner of War. 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 53 

The fact was, that the prieoner who Lad composed for the Yiiukce press this 
oompound of very objectionable grammar and gratuitous eulogy had done so oe 
the re-=ponsibility of not more than three prisoners in the fort, the remaining 
hundi'cd or so being entirely ignorant of this preparation of gratuitous incense 
to our jailours. I have suppressed the name of the authour of the communica- 
tion, from a firm conviction, shared by all the prisoners with whom I have con- 
versed, that he acted contrary to his better nature ; that though thougtiess, he 
was a faithl'ul and zealous Confederate ; and that he had been misled by inter- 
ested advice into something worse than a faux jyas. 

The whole day has been one of excited criticism and sage council on this, our 
unexpected appearance, in Yankee prints. After much consultation, the sub- 
joined letter was prepared for publication in a Boston paper, but was withheld 
from it, since the writer of the obnoxious piece agreed to disclaim publicly the 
authority he had ai^sumed, to represent the prisoners in the fort (which he after- 
wards, 1 believe, did). While, therefore, it was not deemed neccss-ary to pub- 
lish in the Boston newspapers the following expression of opinion, yet the 
prisoners who signed it desired that it should be preserved and placed on 
appropriate record, as a Icstimouy of their sense of propriety and duty in the 
general matter of the behaviour of prisoners. I have, therefore, introduced it 
here, with the ntmcs of its subscribers, as a record of Fort Warren that belong? 
to the Confederacy. 

FoiiT "W'AnREN, Boston Harbour July 16, 18GI. 

To the. Editor of the BostOn Journal : 

Sir : We, the undersigned. Confederate prisoners in [Fort Warren, have no- 
ticed with great surprise, a statement addressed by , prisoner, 

&c., to Major Cabot, and published by that officer in the Journal, stating " on 
behalf of the prisoners," .ic, that '•'we,'"' were "truly mortified" at a certain 
'' slanderous attack" in the Courier j concerning that officer's treatment of pris- 
oners, and proceeding, after these regrets, to contradict the sarnc. In making 

this statement, Mr. did not consult us; did not inform us; and does 

not represent us. We, therefore, request" that you will grant us the same favour 
in your columns afforded to Major Cabot, to correct what you have publis'ned,. 

and to say that we repudiate the statement Mr. has assumed to make in 

our behalf. We do this because this statement refers to a matter entirely be- 
tween Major Cabot and his accuser, with which we have nothing to do; because 
there is no occasion on our part for explanation — still less for sentiment — in « 



-4 OESBRVATIONS IN THE XOTiTH. 

oiatter for wliicli v/e are /not responsible and with v/hiclt wo have notliiBg to do; 
:.. ud because — solely from our self-respect, without reference to the merits or de- 
merits of the case in hand, without design either to cast an injurious reflection 
upon Major Cabot, or to bestow a eulogy upon him — we are so far sensible of 
the delicacy of our position as prisoners that wc cannot see the propriety of our 
Luterfering a.s volunteers in a newspaper controversy, making ourselves the un- 
called for panegyrists of any man, and putting ourselves nnnece«,sarih' and in- 
"locorously before an invidiou- public. 



Jain* W. Caei;y, 0. s. M. 

J. G-ILLIAX Kllitr, c. s. ?>. 
T. L. Wbago, C. 3. N. 
James H. Hoggin's. 
Jamks J. SPEAn, o. s. A. 
A. L. Draytoh, 0. 8. V. 
James R. Milbue:-;. 
S. F. Marshall. 
A. LI. B.. c. s. A, 
W. D, AsCHiJE, c. 3. A, • 
CnA;'^. W. Dei,ou?i, c. 3. .'. 
J). W. S. Knigkt. 
Jajir;-! McLr.oP, c. 3. a. 
Dakiki, MooRi:. 

ROEKBT Hu.\T. * 

A. Bt.pwast. 

Job. M. Hbrtwood, c. 3. ";. 
Jamv.p. V. Hambleton, of Ga. 
C. T. Jenkins, Fla. 
JosEPK Leach, New Orleans, Lh. 

B. 0. MuHoicN, GbarlestOE, H. 0". 



Eaw'a A. PoLLAF.X'. 

W. "W. ACSTIK. * 

W. McBlair, c. s. k. 

J. A. Peters, 0. s. t'^ 

W. A. We?:b, c. s. nJ 

Chas. W. Mii,bue\. 

a. H. Aei.idgl:, Ljspt. c. s. rr. 

C. W. Rr.AD, Lt. c. S.N. 

W. B. Micori, AgST. PaYia, c, ?. \. 

E. II. Bkownk, c. s. s. 

J. A. G. WiLLIAM30:i, c. s. :.. 
Jos. S. West,' c. b n. 
Thos. B. Trayebs, c. 3. T«, 
V. B. Beville, c. s. tc. 
Tiios. L. Hebxandjs;.'^. 
John E. BiLhii-s, Cw s. k. 

F. N. BOSNBAU, c. 0. A. 
R, H. Gaylk, c. :■). t-;. 
J. M. Vernoi<". 

Thomas Marks, Mobik. Ala. 
ArarsTrs P. Gisa,.;.;.', Mobile, A!ft. 



The uuplca.s'ant oeci2Tro!io"e-3 of tri-d:iy hare recalled pome questions which 
nave frequently been pre.S3nt to my mind, with respect to the proper behaviour 
«.>f men who occupy the TiiQfortunatc, and iu many gens&'=', trying and delic.at^' 
]X>sition of pri,-onors of "yfar. It i-: eeffalnly just and becoming that prl'-oner?* 
ishould recognize the kindEiJss and courtesy of thase who teep them ; but thi< 
mui't be done in a propo? way. taul 00 a proper occasion, certainly not by the 
disgmsting method3 of apufi, or for the solfif-'h and eoat-emptible gain of the 
enemy's favour. Justico can. be dcuc evert to an enemy, and it Ls only a bas<;- 
spirit tlist has recourse to fal-fehoo^l and libel Ibr itri miserable reyertgc. 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 55 

I think it is Rousseau, in his "Confessions," who tells of some person whrv^, 
After breaking with a friend, went through the community, announcing : "Li.?tea 
neither to this person iior myself, when ppeaking of each other; for wc are ho 
longer friends." The Frenchman exclaims this as magnanimous. Not- so. A 
candid and honourable person can fulfil exactly and severely the truth to all men, 
aiid the confcsi^on that he and his enemy are equally disreputable in their state- 
ments, lowers him to the standard of that enemy, whatever it may be. 

In these page.«i, I have made it a point to recognize wliatever kindness hay 
been shown mo, although 1 have had no occasion to intrude such things into 
Yankee newspapers. 

My own concoptioo of the proper behaviour of one in the condition of a 
prisoner of war is, that he should consult the dignity of his country, keep aloof 
from all unnecessary conversation or contact with his enemy, and preserve a 
simple severity of manner, which, while guarding against any appearance of 
subserviency, equally avoids the imputation of an unmannerly insolence. For 
I have perceived that there arc two extremes to be shunned in the behaviour of 
prisoners. One is toadyism. The other, and not lesvs contemptible, is thafc 
braggadocio or swagger which affects to be patriotic spirit ; but, in the condi- 
tion of a prisoner, and under the protection which that affords, is really nothing 
'■nore than a display of venturesome cowardice and native vulgarity. It is not 
necessiiry, for -a prisoner to show hLs " Southern spirit," that he should (juarrel 
"^ith corporals and orderlies, and make insolent speeches to the officer^ who are 
put over him. Such a course invites insult and betrays the qualities which 
-MDcket it with indifference. 

In medio tutissimus ibis. The prisoner of war must recognize himself ag ia 
the temporary power of his enemy, and make a becoming submis-sion. But oa 
the other liaad, he must never omit to be sensible of the dignity of his coua- 
try and himself, or forget to moderate his civility with the coDsIderations of self- 
respect and propriety. 



Julr/ 18. — We had in Fori Warren a very remarkable young pri&Dner. a Wy, 
named McBlair, not more than fifteen years old, belonging to the cre,w of the iU- 
fat<;d Atlanta, lie ocrt:iinly had a streak of romance in his compositioo, and Cap- 
tdn Webb, his commander, eaid that he noticed that the lad found an unfailing 
couflolation in the casemates in reading Monte Chrisio. and devouring every boc>k 
of adventure he could possibly obtain. The little fclkw had often strr.ek me 



56 . . OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

by his modest and taciturn manuer j but he had the spirit of a lion iu him ; and 
he has shown a fortitude I could scarcely have imagined in one of his years. 

He made three attempts to escajje. Once he had gained the parapet where 
one of the guards discovered him concealed behind a gun. At another time, 
he found in a nest of rags about the fort some old garments, in which he dis- 
guised himself, and boldly joining the gang of labourers who pass every even- 
ing out of the fort, had passed the sally-port, got down to the Boston boat, and 
had his foot on the j'lank, when one of the guards suspiciously noticing his 
fresh face, halted him, and carried him to headquarters. " So you were trying 
to escape, vvero you?" said Major Cabot. '' I was doing my best, Sir," said the 
little fellow. 

The third attempt of our persevering little friend was made a few nights ago? 
and came near proving a fearful romance. Jiy feigning sickness, he had ob- 
tained admission into the hospital, and, as his only implements of escape had, 
by some mysterious management, secured a slight bed-cord and a life preserver. 
The night he chase for his attempt was dark, tempestuous, and as cold as some of 
our winter nights in Yirgiaia. He had managed, by what must have been a difficult 
process, to squeeze through the narrow casement, and then had crawled up the para- 
pet past the guard in the darkness and the rain. Still crawling along, he reached 
■an angle of the fort, where he secured his slight cord to a gun, and fearlessly 
launched himself over a height of some twenty or thirty feet. The cord broke 
3S he was descending, and he fell into the moat, injuring himself internally, and 
for some moments unable to move. His fall did not arouse the guards. He had 
now to crawl about one hundred yards past the ;-entries to reach the water's 
edge. Stunned, bruised and severely injured, he dragged his body iu pain to 
the black and tempestuous water, over which he must have found it difficult to 
.%ee even the shadow of the island a quarter of a mile off, where he might hope 
to get a boat and reach the mainland. Stripping himself to his shirt and draw- 
ers, and lying the clothes ho had taken off to a plank, he adjusted his life-pre- 
server, and boldly shoved off into the water. But the brave little adventurer had" 
not calculated the temperature of the water j and, as he drifted off into the shadows, 
he found his wounded limbs benumbed, and his powei's utterly failing him. Na- 
ture at last .extorted from him the cry of a drowning sufferer. A boat wa^s 
manned by the guards, and he was taken from the waters insensible. By the 
use of brandy and stimulants, he was enabled after some hours to speak. Major 
Cabot said that in consideration of his youth, he would overlook his effort to 
escape, if ho would give his parole ij make no further attempts. '' No," said 



OBSERVATIONS IN TEE NORTH. 57 

ite brave and dauntless boy, " I'll try until I succeed." He knew the consc- 
c[a€nces of hia resolution. lie was put in a close cell, and doomed to that most 
iryingof all tortures of the spirit, and which nmst. indeed, be maddening to oue 
BO yO'iDg — mlitary iivprlsonmenf. 



(» 



CHAPTER YIII. 

Journal Notks. — Mj Affair with Lord Iiyons Ended.— The Niagara Falls Bubble. — Com- 
ibrting Words.— How Dying Prisonero ara Treated. 

Jnhj 20. — I have ended my affair with Lord Lyons. I received to-day hia 
reply to a letter I'' wrote him ?ome days ago, and have rejoined; which, I sup- 
pose, concludes this vexatious correspondence. Copies of all three letters are 
annexed ; and I shall spare myself any commentary upon them in my journal : 

In Prasox, at Fort ^yARREN, Boston Harbour, ] 

July 11, 1864. I 

Lord Lyons, Envoy Extraordinary, dx., for Her Britannic Majesty, near 

Washimiion, D. C. 

My liord : Will you please inform me what results have been reached, or pro- 
ceedings taken, by Her Majesty's Cfovernmcnt with reference to my application 
for release from this prison by virtue of the protection of the British flag, under 
which I was taken on the high seas. 

I was brought here from a sick bed, at an hour's notice, and have been afl3icted 
in my confinement with partial paralysis ; and I am sure that this much said of 
the extremity of my situation will be sufficient to acquit me of importunity in 
sgain seeking at the hands of your Lordship a termination of my sufferings. 
I have the honour, dc, your obedient servant, 

Edward A. Pollard. 



British Legation, ) 

■Washington, D. C, July 17, 18(54. ) 

Sir : Your letter of the 1 J ch instant rcaohed me yesterday. Iri reply to the 
question which you ask, I have to inform you that I received yesterday afler- 
afiK)u the answer of Her Majesty's Goycrnment to the dispatches which I a-d- 



OBSCKVATIOXS IX THE NORTH. . 59 

dressed to tbcm on the subject of the capture of the Greyhound, and in which 
T enclosed copies of your letters to me. 

The general instructions of Her Majesty's Government preclude my interfer- 
ing, without special orders from tliem, in behalf of American citizens captured 
00 board British- vessels, seized for breach of blockade; aHd as Her Majesty's 
Orovernment have not, on the present occasion, ordered me to interfere in your 
behalf, it is, of courrse, my duty to abstain from doin,2' so. 

1 am. sir, your obedient servant, LvoN.s. 

Edward _A. Pollard, -£V<^., Fort Warren, Boiion. 



Fort Warren, Boston Harbour, ) 
July 20, 18t)-l. j 

l,yrd Lyons, EnvF>)/ .Extraordinari/ for Ilcr Brifanmc Majesty, nco.r Waslnnff- 

ton, D. C. 

My Lord : I thank you for your courtesy in replying to my different letters, 
i have, of course, no further claim to make upon it in that regard. But it is 
not improper that 1 should express a respectful dissent from the conclusion you 
have reached, and inform you that whenever released from prison I shall prefer 
to the Home Government of ller Majesty a formal claim for indemnity for a 
damaging and cruel imprisonment, to which I consider I h;ivc been subjected 
by the failure to obtain that protection under a neutral flag which was due to 
me under the law of nations and that of humanity. 

I cannot concede, what is certainly a novel and inhuman doctrine in interna- 
tional law, that a passenger on a, British, vessel which has broken the blockade 
Is so tainted in the breach of blockade that he may bo taken an the high ma^; 
under the neutral flag, as human prize by his enemy. If, as I am left to un- 
derstand, my Lord, this is the position of your Government, it follows that it 
a?vsents to a system of kidnapping under its flag on the high seas, and establishes 
against itself an astounding pukckdent. For if I, a passenger, was a legal 
prize on the Greyhound, then the British passenger in tlic Sitme cireurastuncei! 
i? equally so, being no more protected by the British flag on the high seas than 
i should be myself; and if, in those same circumstance^-^, the Englishman docs 
n .)t share my fate, but is absolved by diplomatic inter,.'es<ion, thL« is the fo.rrmt 
of the Yankee Government, which may at any time be withdrawn. 

At one time yo\ir Lordship wrote me that you had rcque^st<;d my release. At 



60 OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

another time, you write you cannot interfere in my behalf in any ma,uuer what- 
ever. I am left to imagine that there is no other cause for thi.s contradiction 
than that I am a citizen of a friendless and persecuted Governiacut, towards 
which, yours, my Lord, profosses neutrality, but, I must say, practices uniform 
disfavour. 

Whenever restored to liberty I shall have full opportunity to testify to the 
damage of my imprisonment, as measure of the indemnity I shall claim from 
the British Grovernment. But your Lordship will already perceive from the 
enclosed copy of my letter to the Secretary of the United States Navy, which 
has never been answered or noticed by him, that I have in vain entreated a pa- 
role on account of my healtli, in circumstances which appeal not uuly to senti- 
ments of pity, but to the lowest senses of humanity. 

I trust that your Lordship will find nothing in what I have written inconsis- 
tent with the high and courteous eousideratien due personally to yourself, or 
improper to be communicated, as I desire, to your Government in the interests 
of justice and humanity. 

I have the honour, &c.. 

Your obedioDt servant, 

Edw'd a. 1\^llard.. 



Juhj 21. — It appears from Yankee newspapers which have got into the case-- 
mates, that there has been undertaken at Niagara Falls a peace negotiation after, 
the style of Brandreth's Pills advertisements; in which HoKace Greeley is in- 
termediary of the Confederates, George N. Saunders, their fugleman — a flip- 
pant telegram of the latter to James Gordon Bennett, commeneing the proceed- 
ings. It is to be hoped there is nothing in all thi.s : that the Confederate Gov- 
ernment has not for the fonrth time in this war, when there is already a stand- 
ing tender of peace and an abundant definition of its terms in the ofiicial acts 
and expressioas of Congress and the Executive, sought the back-door of Wash- 
ington, and put itself in a position to be snubbed and cuiTed out of countenance 
by the master of the ''White House." But we shall see how much of author- 
ity there is in thc^se proceedings, and how much of the self-exhibition of noto- 
riety-hunters and advAiturei-s. In the mean time our little circle here enter- 
tains itself with the credulity of the Yankee newspapers, and their remarkablO'. 
fecundity in making the wish father to the thought. An intelligent friend, in 



OBSKRVATIONS IN 'THE NORTH. gl 

liofiton wrlt-es me this evemng, in dead earnest, " terms of peiiee are passing 
over the wire-/' and coaeludcs with a flourish of piety and a fervent thank's- 
giving for the happy nows. 



July 22. — "W'o were permitted for the first time thin morning to walk a short 
distance on the island. I wa.s touehod to see the grave of a Confederate pris- 
oner beneath the rairiparts. 

On our return to the casemates I found in the morning mail a comforting and 
sweet letter from my lady friend in Boston. I cannot forbear making an ex- 
tract from it, as an evidence of the kind and Christian spirit of this excellent 
person : 

. . . . "I can. well underdtand all you must suffer of an.xiety, and I sympaihize most 
Jx-eply with jou. It Is hard tu brin}^ one's reafon and philoaophy to the reHcue, under circuno- 
niances of guch peculiar trial. But, my dear friend, wli€n these fail, faith Comes in, and your 
h?art will be lifted out of the dcpthn, and comforted in the aasurance that joy will surely come 
afcer a night of darkness and de:<o';iLioii. Ja uinc'ne^?, awl (•f'tifilrric- nhnU ne •jf>vr strength; 
aad, if I ask you to trust, I am aure you will bear with me, and not think I am preaching to 
you. If I cared less, I would not say this to you. Uut it saddens me to know that you are 
»uffering from a miserable feeling of illness and depression; and in my longing to do or say 
*omething to comfort you I may run — as women are apt to do — into what you would not be 
binmcd for con^iIJcring pious platitudes." 

" I hope you will like and lind readable 'Prescott's Life.' I have not read it yet, but pro- 
mise rayoelf that [ileasure. If you will give the Volume we .iond a place in your library, it will 
hereafter recall to you a passage in your life, which you may then not be entirely unwilling t'> 
rimember. For this reason, I truiit you will not consider it a burden, that I ask you not to re- 
turn it. Kemember if you think of aiMj thing you would like, you are to write at once to No 

for it. M»7 God bless you, dear friend."' 



July 24. — Kveu the vih'st criuiinal, at the point of death, is permitted to see 
n'vi relative?, to communicate his last wishes, and to comfort his dying hourwith 
the last embraces and tokens of affection. 

A few days ago, Captain Bonncau, of South Carolina, a fellow prisoner, sick 
ii>r many long mor.ths, was thought past hope of recovery, and the coinmandant 
oi' the pri-oii was aakcd for pernii?,-ion for some jicr?!on in Boston to see him. 
At any rate, Major Cabot found it proper to refer to his "orders from Wash- 



62 OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

ington,'^ wliereiu it was stated that a prisoner in the last extremity of sickness 
might be permitted to see " his nearest relatives, if loyal l" 

The reader will ask, can it be possible that such an order can enter the brain 
and heart of man in this age of civilization and humanity I Can it be possible 
that loyalty to Abraham Lincoln, already made a test on women and children, 
and their right to breathe the ;ar of their homes, is also to be made the test of the 
right to the last consolations of natural affection in the dying hour ! — that tlie 
Yankee is to haggle about " oaths," and bring in his trumpery of temptation 
even at the grave ! — that he is to whet his devilish appetite of torture in the 
last agonies of the death of his victim ! 

An unhappy Confederate might be dying and his wife be just outside the 
walls, come to him on the last errand of affection. She would not be permitted 
to see him unless she blackened her soul with perjury, renounced the country 
of her dying husband, and insulted the solemnity of death by coqueting with 
tic politics of Abraham Lincoln. 

One finds himself asking: is humanity stone dead in the Yankee heart, and 
has the world no conscience? Vengeance sleeps ; but Divine justice has all the 
crimes of our enemies on ite immortal record, and to doubt the day of retribu- 
tioH is to doubt the power of the Almighty. 



CHAPTER IX. 

JoraKA.L Notes Coxtisued. — A Yankee's Confession : Confederate Civiluation. — A " M«f 
ef Busy Life" in Eoeton. — . . . Sickness and Reflectiong in Prison : Female Philosophy on 
tbt War. 

Ju^ 25. — The Boston Travelkr says : " It would only be an the vauquLslied 
tliat wc could consent to Southern '. independence.' For observe what that < in- 
dependence' would mean. It would mean our abdication of the pasition of the 
American nation. Let but the Southern Confederacy be acknowledged by us, 
and it would succeed immediately to the place formerly held by the United 
States, in the estimation of the world. It would become the fir.st power iia 
North America, and if Maximilian should there succeed, Mexico would have the 
second plac^, while ours should be the third." 

The Yankee is right. We Confederates arc not only fighting in this war for 
independence, but for the front rank in the civilization of this continent, and 
for a destiny of power as well as of liberty. Such considerations ennoble the 
contest. Such prizes should stimulate our exertions. 

But, apart from this reflection, there is an important truth involved in the 
declaration quoted above, which the Boston editor unconsciously admits and 
does not develope. It is that the South reprosents in this contest the better 
part of American civilization, represents supcriour ideas, represents what is most 
valuable in the traditions of the past, for it i^ pnly by such titles she could suc- 
oeed " to the place formerly held by the United States." 

And here opens an infinite field of interest to the intelligent inquirer. A 
comparison : on the oue side, the North — its false and phosphorescent civiliza- 
tion — showy free schools, the nests of every social pestilence — material gauds — a 
society rotten with insolent agrarianism called " democracy ;" on the other side^ 
the South — it^ virtuous simplicity — the extraordinary intelligence of a people 
educated, not so much'by books, as by free institutions and by a peculiarly free 
interchange of mind between all classes of society — a popular innocence of mad 
yclorm.'*, " L^ni.'^/' morbid appetites, unnatural vices, and other products of New 



, tf^fe OBSERVATIONS .IN THE x\ORT II. 

l-laglund free schools — and, most conspicuoiLS of all, a true and noble drzao- 
feracy; of which it may be said that, though the white labouring man of the 
k^outh defers to tho&e who are his supcrioui-s (not indeed in rights, but in the 
variou? particulars of society), uo one more quickly or effectually than he resents 
;ho iasult or contumely of power. Here arc heads of reflection for a volume ; 
and somebody should write it, to show the world how little it knows of the {j<m- 
federacy, and how much it has been deluded by the lies, the boasts, the Thra- 
.souical literature, and Puritanical pretence of the Yankee, 



Juli/ 28.— 

" What 13 it, but a luap of hu^j life." — Cowpkr. 

I have been interested to-day in a apccimen of Yankee literature, '' for the 
home circle ;" the Botton Saturday Evciung Gazette, an excellent specimen of 
that New England family literature which crops out in hebdomadals, illustrated 
papers, and other tokens of literary civilization. 

With the usual amount of maudlin stories and poetry and reading matter foe. 
the home circle, the Saturday Evening Gazette furnishes its readers with a 
double-rate advertisement, in editorial type, on the terroura of Masturbation.. 
This adverti.<emcnt of a Boston quack is entitled an " essay," and placed in « 
•conspicuous ruirt of the paper, where it is impo.^sible for the eye to avoid the 
nasty mess of literature and obscenity. 

Let us look at the editorial columns. First we have the report of a sormOti 
of a Boston clergyman, who edifies us with this discovery in the history and 
}K)litics of America : 

"'The war of IS 12 w:i? »n aggre.'?siTe war, commenced in opposition t,o the wi3<Iom ef our IbeS't 
a-od wisest .'-:tatc.inen, to help Napoleon Bonaparte, the liulwark of despotism on Ae continent, 
a»d to destroy England, the last refuge in the wholo world for the oppreesed." 

Following thi.s instructive sermon are editorial " puffs" of variou* descrip- 
rions. A oorrespondent, whose palm has been evidently greased, gives the fol- 
lowing glowing description of the attractions of a watering-place, which is evi- 
dently a candidate for public tavour, with "its polite yo«ng lady waiters:" 

" The tables at this house ore filled with the ehoieest viand? of the J.s«ason, and being a^l\ 

■.•>l»ort tables, each family may enjoy the beneiitti itnd pleasures of a full sLi-course dinaer, ua 

iTje ladia.s' ordinary, at three o'clock, \a the dres? dinner of the J»y, without being obligefl t» 



OBSERVATIONS IN' THE NORTH, 05 

await the t-edioua formula of the leng-table sjHfem. The attendants of the house aro iu the 
most part from your city, and we believe thoy/.-re excellent selections, as tho whole house has 
that air of soeiability and contentment io peculiar to houses of its kind in tba old Bay Stat«, 
Hark ! I hear the gong that retuiuJa me that Putnam, with his host of polite young lady wai- 
ters, is ready to serve the ladies' ordinary, where I can witness the best-dzeH^d ladies and en- 
joy an excellent dinner, all at the sauu" tiaie." 

The Ga~.cttc is not sparing: in iLs pufT^. The render Ls informed, in an edito- 
rial paragraph, of, a certain person who cleans old clothes by steam. The editor 
vouches for him that "work will be donV; in that astute' style for which he is 
renowned." 

The reader's attention h next called to a camp-meeting in the vicinity of 
Boston. " These gatherings," says the seductive editor, " partiike somewhat 
of the character of a picnic, and afford to many almost the onit/ recreation of 
tin i^rason." "Who would not visit this scene of New England piety, after such 
a recommendation, and the information that twenty -five cents will give him a 
()assage on the " unrivalled " line of Blowhard & Co., to this pleasant Canaan! 

Following the editorial matter, if-: an advertisement by the column of miracu- 
lous cures of almost every disease imaginable, invariably attested by, the certifi- 
cates of " clergymen." These medical advertisements are irrepressible, efful- 
gent, and difficult to be epitomized. Here we have Cancer and Canker Syrup, 
.imboliuc (for the hair), "White Pine Compound, Howard's Vegetable Syrup, 
"Ironized" Catawba "Wine, Indian Emmennagogue, Cherokee Injection (with 
picture of big Indian), Dr. Wright's Regenerating Elixir, Hungarian Balsam, 
Chloasma, Pabulum Vitaj, Medical Hydrokonia, &c., &c. 

A savoury list of quack compounds surely, with illustrative wood-cut? of wo- 
men covered with hair by the use of " Amboline," etc., and regenerated skele- 
tons " after taking " the nostrum, and all attested by the sacred testimony of 
clergymen, and other grateful, bedridden saints, who invariably .'^eud for the 
second bottle. 

And, so with quack certificates; the card of an independent, wakeful clair- 
voyant; matrimonial brokerage; lewd advertisements of men and women for 
•' agreeable companions ;" and a few other specimens of filth, we iiave exhausted 
the delectable contents ef the leading and model family paper of Boston. Is 
there not here a picture of coarse and purient life in which we may detect not 
a few of tho characteristics and 'curses of New England " civilization ?" 



QQ ' 0BSERYATI02nS IN THE NORTH. 

August 10. — I have written nothing in my journal fur some days. In thi> 
time I have been sick, almost unto death, in these cruel walls. Tortured, too, 
from day to day, with nvery rumour ahd shadow of hope that flita through tie 
prison, about the mnch-talked-of and long-deferred exchange of prisoners. 
From day to day I have carried the heavy burdens of sickness and disappoint- 
ment ; but though, at lu.st, the t<trength of my body has ralUed a little, the skiU 
of the phyBician cannot 80 easily recover the mind. I can imagine a brutal sub- 
mission to imprisonment, a sullen and coarse satisfaction in sleeping and dream- 
ing away a life; but there arc nervous, active sensibilities, to which a prison i; 
more terrible than death — men who beat their souls against its walls and live ih 
a frenzy of mad hopes. Alas for the fatal gift of excessive sensibility ! Add 
to this a disease, which condemns one to the horrours of the bedridden in pri- 
son and fills the mind with gloom, and the circumstauces excuse the most ab- 
ject degrees of distress. 

There was a little event of pleasant surprise in my life to-day. A box con- 
taining undei'-clo^hing, and, what was even better, something to eat, sent all thf 

way /rofti tJt-c di^lant prairies o/ 3Iisgouri, marked "from Kate W ." So 

it was from no strange angel, but from the dear Virginia lady who had writt<!Ji 
me before, and who would take no refusal of her kind disposition to serve me. 
I accepted the gift with a feeling of gratitude in my heart, which my pen could 
but very poorly express. 

I have often had occasion to meditate, in this war, upon the abundant hu- 
manity it has shown in women. The fierceness of its strife has too frequently 
steeled the hearts of men, and demoralized much of our better nature; selfish- 
ness, mean expediencies, callouauess, a certain carelessness for the misfortunes? 
of others, since misfortune has become so common, have taken much of the 
place of the charities and courtesies of society. But in these, the worst ruins 
of war, our women, steadfost and conspicuous in their better nature, have not 
forgotten, even in the sorrows of their own hearth-stones, the claims of sympa- 
thy; but everywhere, in the hospital, in the prison, in every walk of charit}', 
tiey have followed the impulses, and illustrated the duties of tender and un- 
failing hnraanity. 

And then, too, how much superiour is woman's instinct in taking sides in such 
a war than the troubled reason of men. The women of Maryland and of Ken- 
tucky would give an overwhelming majority. for the Confederacy; they, even 
while their husbands and brothers differ, are secessionist, almost without an ex- 
ception; and even here, in the cities of the North, there arc innumerable wo- 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. " ^7 

men who condole with the Confederacy, are in love with its virtues and suffer- 
ings, and dare expressions of sympathy and admiration in the face of prison, 
exile, and all the inhuman penalties which the Washington Government and its 
minions can proclaim. 

There arc .some questions which require a certain complication of reason 3 
others the key to which is found in a single direct and plain thought. Of these 
latter, women, are the better judges. I have seen in a single paragraphing, 
woman's letter in a New York paper, the questions of this war more effectually 
di.sposed of than in all the sesquipedals of thu editorial columnri, jnd all tbo 
four ycarc' arguments of the Yankee newsp.ipers. *' Ttlen,'" *!ay.s this fcmalo 
eritlc (she Ls talking of the male Yankee), "who would rather run than fight, 
any day, and who, if they are drafted, will hasten in abject terrour to the firsfc 
emigrant nhip which arrives, to secure a substitute, talk loudly about the glory 
of fighting and dying for one's flag and on«';< country. What is one's flag and 
one's country '/ It is not a strip of rag, or a little dirt, a few stones, and some 
water ; thc>se can be found anywhere, and demand no especial coasideration. If 
our country and our flag are dear, it is bccauf-e they represent to us a larger 
proportion of the blessings tliat make life desirable than can be found elsewhere. 
If these arc forcibly taken away from us, if peace is gone, if liberty is gone, jf 
friends; are gone, — if homo and plenty are gone, what is the country and the 
flag worth to me ^ All countries belong alike to God, and if a happy and peace- 
ful life could be better secured on any other portion of this^ earth, that wouM 
become ray country." 

Thank God, we Confederates have a country to which we nmy claim a virtu- 
ous attachment, in which are wrapped up our individual welfare and our indivi- 
dual aspirations ; in which we have pride and honour for the courage of its men, 
and for the benevolent missions of it,s laws to every home and fireside. Such a 
country a voKian or child can love quite as intelligently as the man ; for it id 
the expression oi' what makes life desirable, adorns it with unfailing objects of 
pride, and. a.^sociates each member of the community, not notoriously ivnworthy, 
with tlie honour>* of familiar history. ,1' 



OHAI'TEll X. 

Oct op P«iso\. — M/ rifi)le. — My Boston Benefactree?. — In Yankee Atjuoapbere.— A Letter 
ffom Boston.— Sorne Words oa "Peace Negotiations." — Waiting?. 

AuQitxt 12. — A ineniorable day. For on this day after unspeakable and al- 
aiost mortal sufferings^ I wa;^ released from prison, on a parole, to remain with a 
.relative in Brookhoj until my special exchange, which I then supposed to be 
'>a negotiation, wa^ co'upieted. A concession obtained for me by friends, to 
whom my life-long, I- ving gratitude is ever due. 

In the morning, Kti^k, the laconic orderly, came to my casemate with the 
Oiiort and severe mpfiwage. ^'' I was ■vraiitod at the A.djutaut's offico." I weut 
there, and was toid that I would be released on signing a '• parole." The news 
apset my nerves, a^d brcught my heart into luy throat; but, alas! though 
^liberated fi-om the fort, I was yet to bo confinfu iu i'ankec atmosphere. But I 
certainly was not disposed to quarrel with the partial favours of fortune, aud so 
f signed my pant:*' with a \try lively satisfaction, and could hardly refrain from 
aiiouting for joy as 1 returned to the casemate to gather up ray blanket and 
what lew duds c'<>nf<titTiited my propeny iu prison. 

I was required tu pUdge my "^sacred word of honour," "not to commit any hos- 
tile act against the Government of the United 8tate,-, nor aiford aid or comfort 
to the enemies thereof in atiy raaunci; whatever, nor communicate to any one in 
the rebellious States, or proceeding thithrr, oi* to any one in Europe, or other 
•foreign country, any isiformation that may or can be used to the injury of the 
VXnited States, and that 1 will report in writing to ^ the Secretary of the Navy 
cyery two weeks, ;!.rid hold rcyself prepared to refurn to Fort Warren whenever 
Le shall so direct ; it being understood that this parole is to cease at the pleasure of 
the Secretary of tlte Navy, or in tL'o event of my recommitment to prison, or 
wv exchange, or the teTUiinaticn of the war." 

What a parting J have had with my poor fellow-prisoners — mes&ag:s and en- 
treaties for l{ichuK'*id-, good wixdies, aiTeetionatc counsels, almost tears ! Captain 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE XORTE. g.^ 

Grecu gave me a ring of his own mauufacturc, and )xj good friend Mar:ti 
wanted to press upon me a gold oliaiu, a rcmuant of p-oporriy •which the- Ya.B 
kees had, strangely enough, left the poor fellow. As I paf3sed through tho 
sally-port, I turned to wave my handkcrehief to tlie woary, watching faecj ; 
but the sergeant orders me to "move on." I have left, behind some friendship;; 
in those granite walls ; and, if there, too, I have left a pleasant record of luj 
companionship in the hearts of ni'y unfortunate countrysjoen, God knows that i. 
am pruuder of it than of any other meniory of my lif;;.^ 



Aii>/vst 15. — I was required to report in tAvcnty-fovir bouvs in Brooklyn, bv»i> 
found time to see some' friends in Uoston. I saw roj benefactress tljere, tI-.o 
noble Catholic lady, who had devoted herself to rhe comfort and consolation of 
the unhappy men in Fort "Warren, :iud whose ni.m-:' ^ha-ijld be inscribed in every 
record of honour in the Confederacy. 

I shall never forget the brief time I spent 1)2 the deliglitful company of th"^?j 
lady and her family. The benevolent smile Avith which she met me, kindltd 
my heart with a gratitude I could only stammer out in awkward words. Bot. 
my awkwardness was brief, for in a few moments T }elt at home — the feeli^i^ 
which is only the result of that simple grace and beaming sincerity with which 
so few can entertain a stranger. 1 remained several hours. There M'ore tc;i. ; 
in :Jie cye« of thus gentle lady when she read to me letters she had receivi; \ 
from prisoners, and especially wlion she road a b(.<auritul letter from a yoMm>^ 
Catholic priest, describing his feelings in visiting ■&■ lieM where some ^•onfedrat'e*! 
had engaged the Yankee troops near "Washington. Lfo had found there thehi^f. 
of a Confederate, torn and bloody, close up to the lincf, and the incident he hac 
woven into some touching reflection- on the unknown gallant spirit that had mti. 
death, probably leading the forlorn hope ol the d;iv. 

In that little family circle where I had suddenly ste^-ped from thx^ gray waHt. 
of prihon, 1 found a solace and cntcrt;uQm<.'nt that seemed to impart again to xi?.i 
the pleasures of life. All were so kind and so interested. 

The dear little girl who had actually bundled out of bed to see a '^ .Southern 
prisoner," 1 had to tell of young MeTilair's attempt to escape, and all our^othcr 
little hL-;ti.'ries in the fort. Then she must show me her stock of photographs i^' 
the " poor prisoners," and with them <orae J-lnglish caricatures of Lincoln, whicb, 
like all stich specimens of J-inglL^h lumiour, were adK'ra"ble, alike in portraitu.-c 
and in point. I did not leave for my hotel until neRr r:Jdn^ght. 



70 OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

An</mt 16. — I am yet strange and giddy in the comparative liberty of a parole 
tifter tlie horrour and torture of a Yankee prison. In the streets of Boston 
tliere was sounding in my eai-s the usual surly " halt" of some brass-harnessed 
i''ankee at almorft every step ; and in the cars, whirled for twelve hours by the 
white houses and apple orchards of New England, and through the peaceful 
hrenes of the country, I was imagining the reveille, the harsh call Ut the cook- 
iiouse, the orderly's round, and all the other routine of a day in prison. 

I am living. in a very gemote suburb of Brooklyn ; and here, incog. , and in- 
tent to avoid all social contact with the Yankee, I must po.s-^evss rny houl in pa- 
tience, until, in God's good time and merciful providence, I shall again breathe 
the air of home and of liberty. ^ 



Amptst 17. — A letter from my dear friend in Boston : 

So#T»M, 1864. 

I did not half tell you, my dear Mr. Pollard, how glad aud ,'i;ratelul I am tor your release. I 
did not realize it uatil after you had gone. The pleasure of seeing yon face to face, of making 
you a veritable faot, after believing you comewhafa myth, of talking with you upon the one 
(;«bject of deep interest to us bath, was too much at the time to take in that other joy of 
your freedom. I suppose if I were a boy,^^ should have thrown up my csp, and made a noise 
IJko that "the shroudt; make at sea, in a ntifl" tempest, as loud and to as many tunee." As it was, 
I followed the impulse of a womanly n^^^u^^, and, kneeling dov/n, I thanked Him who had heard 
o«r prayer, aud loosed your chains, and opened wide your guarded prison door?. 

. . . . We are getting up some things for the prisoners. WhaJ: efmll I put inforMr. 
I'ollard, waa my iirst thought— forgetting, for the moment, that you had taken wings. I wish 
i had asked yoa more particuh^rly what is best to Mnd. I ah.iU really be grateful for any sugges- 
tions. After all, kotc little one can do for ?o many. What are the five loaves and two email fishes 
ttmong such a multitude. It is only that the doing one's best is acceptable from the sympathy 
j>; expresses. You, dear friend, entirely over-estimated the very little I found it a privilege to 
do for you. If I eould atone by a life of service for the least of the wrongs my people (alae ! 
that I should say ;.»/y people) have inflicted upon as noble a race as God ever created, I should 
oQly bo too happy. You must never think of any little thing I have done iu any other way. 
11 I have given you one moment's cheer or comfort, it has been more to me thaa to you that I 
have been able to do so. 

I shatl hope to hear from you as soon as you have had yonr fill of sleeping between fresh, 
deaa sheets. I think I would take it out after tho fashion of Hip Van Winble. And the plea- 
is«re, tog, of sitting at a table with one's own frieads, and eating in a Christian way I It must 
aimost repay you for tho hardship and keen discomfort of your prition life. No more rations, 
no more abominable pork. D<o <ji-<'tin,s .' 

I have just received a call from a gentleman friend .... He is, indeed, » very true 
ftud faithful man ; and the tiaie will yet come when his voice will be heard above t"he wild 
waves of pa-ssioaate strife, and his calm poiver will be felt. I intend writing him this week, 
and it will give me great pleasure to tell him what you said of him. 



OBSERVATIONS IN THP] NORTH. 71 

Well my friend, tbers Ls notbin^ elt-e to -write, but to ?ay with all my heart, God llerm yov. 
Aad may He bring you to the haven where you would be, and give you the dearest desire of 
your heart and life ererla.sting. I know you will write me when you can. Say one farewell 
word when you leave, that I may follow you with tliou?;hta .ind pruyera of affection and trud 
sympathy. 



Auguat 20. — Siflce I have been on parole, I have already discovered some- 
thing of the public temper ; so much so as to satisfy my mind that the great 
disappointment of the North, thus far in the resuits of the summer campaign of 
1^64, has given rise to a certain desire to end the war by negotiations. And it 
w not to be doubted that this desire has found some response in the South. The 
undignified and somewhat ridiculous overtures for peace made in this summer 
by partic,'*, who, on each ^idc, anxiously disclaimed that they had any authority 
]'rom their governments, but, on earh side, by a further curious coincidence, re- 
presented that they were act^uainted with the wishes and views of their govern- 
ments, cannot be altogether a story of egotistical adventures. They betray the 
incipiency, though an obscure one, of negotiations; and, I think, the times are 
rapidly making developments of the tendency of an* appeal to compose the 
war. 

I cannot anticipate what bribes may be offered the South to confederate again 
with the North, But one ha-s been already suggested in the North : it is, to 
tind an atrocious compensation for the war in a combined crusade against foreign 
nations. 

The New York JI>-iaId declares : " With a restored Union, prosperity would 
once more blesa the land. If any bad blood remained on either side, it would 
s-oon disappear, or be purged by a foreign war. With a combined veteran army 
of over a million of men, and a fleet more powerful than that of any European 
power, we could order Franco from Mexico, England from Canada, and Spain 
from Cuba, and enforce our orders if they were not obeyed. The American 
continent would then belong to Americans. The President at Washington would 
govern the New World, and the glorious dreams and prophecies of our fore- 
fathers would at length be realized.'' 

To a proposition of such infamy of infamies, the attention of the civilized 
world should be called. What a commentary upon that European policy which 
has lavished so much of sympathy and material comfort upon the North, and, 
i)n the other hand, has rejected the cause of a people, who, as they are resolute 
in maintaining their own rights, are as equally, indeed expressly and emphati- 
t-aJly, innocent of any dcvsigns on the right and welfare of others ! The sugges- 
tion is, that of a huge and liorriblc Pomocracy, eager to prey upon the rights 



72 OBSERVATIONS LS' THE NORTH, 

of others, aud to repair by plunder and outrage the cost of its feuds and the. 
waste of its vices. 

The people of the Confederacy do not easily listen to suggestions of dishon- 
our. Yet none are more open to the cunning persuasion which wears the dis- 
guise of virtuous remonstrance and friendly interest. It is here where the Yan- 
kee peacemaker is to be resisted and unmasked. 

It will be for the Confederacy to stand firm in every political coujuncture, 
and to fortify itself against the blandishments and arts of a designing enemy. 
It will remember that enemy's warfare. It will remember that an army, whose 
personnel hits been drawn from all parties in the North, has carried the war of 
the savage into their homes. It will remember how Yankees have smacked 
their lip?; over their carnage aud the sufferings of their women and little ones. 
It will remember how New England clergymen have advised that "rebels," 
men, women and children, sliould be sunk beneath the Southern sod, and the 
soil "■ salted with Puritanical blood, to raise a new crop of men." To hate let 
us not reply with hate. We reply with the superiority of contempt, the resolu- 
tion of pride, the scorn of defiance. Surely, rather than reunite with such a 
people ; rather than cheat the war of " independence," and make its prize that- 
cheap thing in American history— a paper guaranty ; rather than cheat our dead 
of that for which they died ; rather than entitle ourselves to the contempt of 
the world, the agonies of self-accusation, the reproof of the grave, the curses 
of posterity, the displeasure of the merciful God who has so long signified HLs 
providence in our endeavours, we arc prepared to choose more suffering, moj'e 
trials, even utter poverty and chains, and exile and death. 



.... September 10. — The fall has set in, and yet no news of my exchange. 
I have written to Richmond of my failing health ; but I fear it may be some 
time yet before I again see my brown South, and stand upon the •' siicred soil" 
of Virginia. 

Living here in seclusion — at least, choosing such severe isolation as I think 
becomes both the misfortune and resentment of a prisoner — consumed by anx- 
iety, I have nothing left to su.-tain me but the promises of hope. And if 1 
cannot hope successfully, 1 can ut least hope bravely. 

Anything rather than mere vustal^la, or that certain fatal charm of melan^ 
choly, which loses its misfortunes in idle sentimentalism. 

He who leai'ns to u-a!t is more tliau all other men the master of his fortune. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Parties and Onsioxs in the North. — Vagabond Knights of Seeessia. 

November 17. — The great value of my parole has been the opportunities it 
has afforded me of immediate observation of the politics and society of the 
North, of introduction to many of their public men, and of a rare and extraor- 
dinary insight into the public spirit and real designs of the North with refer- 
ence to the war. In these observations and studies I have been a.ssisted by 
many verbal and,i»ritteu communications from candid and intelligent Northern 
men, wh© have freely exchanged their information and views for my impres- 
sions of Confedomtc affairs, which, indeed, I have been glad to give with em- 
phasis on every proper occasion. The course of practical instruction afforded 
me in an interval of parole, in which I had free access to all quarters and clashes 
of public opinion in the North, has brought my mind to certain distinct and 
firm ooQclusions, which, in certain respects, or, in some measure, have sup- 
planted former theories of Yankee poliftics. 

And of these, the fir.st is that there is no considerable encouragement what^ 
ever to be found for the South in any existing party complication in the North, 
or in any element of conservatism there ; that nothing remains for her but the 
arbitration of the sword, and the resolution of liberty or death. This is not a 
piece of rhetoric ; nor is it an attempt at extravagance. It is a deliberate con- 
clusion ; formed against the natural desire of the mind to believe what is most 
agreeable ; formed against my first impressions ; formed after careful and un- 
remitting inquiries in which I had the constant excitement of curiosity, the 
advantages of observation in the midst of the great political campaign in the 
North, and the assistance of an unrestrained personal intercourse with men of 
ail paxtic-s and opinions, at the most importjint centres of thought in the enemy's 
country. 

I had the opportunity of witnessing all th|p stages of public opinion in the 
North from August to November, When I came out of prison in the first- 
6 



•74 OBSERVATIONS IS THE NORTH. 

oamed mon!,li, tlio idea of "peace" was'iu active discussion; the YankeetSwere 
thea discouraged at tlie failure- of Grant, and the so- far negative campaign of 
Sherman. But then came sucoesso? for the enemy, and now the passions of the 
war blaze up more fiercely than evf^r. The people of the South should under- 
stand that all party changes in the Nortli are constantly accommodating them- 
fielves to the course of military eventpj and that thus, on these events, the for- 
tune of the South solely and severely relies. 

Since the Chicago Convention, the Yankee peace party has moved inversely 
with the scale of military success, and as that has mounted in Northern opinion 
it has fallea, until it at last approaches .jero. 

No doubt can rest in hisiory, that at the time of the Chicago Convention the 
Democratic party in the North had prepared a secret programme of operations, 
the final and inevitable conclusion of which was the acknowledgment of the in- 
depeadence of the Confederate States. It was proposed to get to this conclu- 
sion by distinct and successive steps, so as not to alarm too much the Union 
sentiment of the country. The first step was to be the ^topo*iition of the 
"Union as -it was" in a Convention of the States; if that was voted down, 
then the. proposition of a new principle of federation, limited t^. the foreign rela- 
tions and to the revenue; if that ws« rejected, then the proposition of an Intcr- 
(Jonfederatc Union to preserve, as far as possible, by an extraordinary league, 
tho American prestige ; and if all these propositions, intended as successive 
tests of the spirit of the South, were to fail, then at last the independence of the 
Confederate States, made the sine qna non, was to be conceded by the Demo- 
oratic party of the North, as the last resprt of pacification, and the one of two 
alternatives where their choice could no longer hesitate. It will be seen from 
this sketch of the programme that tho design of the Democratic party was to 
get the North on the naked issue of wnr and separation. 

The plan utterly failed" in its execution. The fiill of Atlanta gave a new 
Xa&BQ to the war. And, aside from that event, it would have fallen through from 
tho incoherence of the materials which, at that time, composed the Democratic 
party. In fact, the party, like all otber Yankee minorities, went to pieces, and 
was swallowed up in the Presidential election, and may be said to have practi- 
cally disappeared since then frora the political arena, where, if it shows itself at 
yll now, it is only in mock combat . 

It was only necessary to observe the diorama of the Presidential campaign in 
that city of "immense sensations" — New York — to get directly before one's eyes 
ihc peculiar and unparalleled ccwovdiee and subsers'iency of the Yankee in his 



OBSERYATIOXS IN THE NORTH. 75 

parties and his politioiil cri^ani'ifclons. Some days before tlie electioB, New 
York WU3 incandescent with revolution* processions flaunted banners and paste- 
board through the streets, mottoed with what was. in the Washington definition, 
downright ''treason;" the hotels and bar-rooms wore choked with "aecesh," 
vociferous, defiant, and generally half drunk. Yet, when Butler came, all this 
clamour and show left the stage as suddenly a.s one of Heller's apectacles, if not 
like it, in a flash of brimstone; and in one week's time, men, whose mouths had 
been filled with the fumes of revolution, and who had been breathing fire and 
slaughter, were as qliiet as whipped curs, and not a wliit more dangerous. Of 
eourtie, the Yankee papers interpreted the exhibition of cowardly submission as 
the virtuous and magnanimous acquiescence in the will of the majority, a " tri- 
umph of republican institutions," and all that sort of nonsense ; and what was 
actually the display of wretched time-serving of Yankee minoritiea, was put be- 
fore the world by the effrontery of the New York Herald, and the ignorance of 
"•'Professor" Gold win Smith as " thcsublimc spectacle" of patriotic aelf-nega- 
tion and infinite moral virtue in Yankee politics. 

I have asi^crted that there is little, very little, left of an^ " I'eace party " in 
the North at the present time. It is necessary to distinguish the remnant of 
this organization from certain other sentiments in the North with which it has 
been frequently confchmded. 

Tho.-*e people in the North who..?yinpathize with the South, or affect any con- 
sideration for it, nfty be •courcnioutly divided into three clagses. 

First, we may enumerate the so-called " War Democrats." » They affect a 
great virtue on account of their opposition to Abraham Lincoln, but are quite 
ambidextrous on the question of peace ; all they hitve ever said in favour of the 
termination of the war being noihing more than the whine of hypocrisy, as, 
from time to time, the military successes of the Confederates have extorted it. 
While playing their part Hgain:='t Abraham Lincoln, in which, in fact, they have 
no higher aim than partisau effect or public plunder, they att^^mpt a popular 
compensation for this in pretending a virtuous attachment to a Constitutional 
TJnion, oce;i.«ionally throwing into their opinions a little spice of blackguardism 
about ''extreme men" in the Confederacy. These opinions are well exemplified in 
that infamous sheet the New York World, and that " no.se of wax," McClellan. 
We will find the editor of this paper, one day, emptying his pot of filth on Mr. 
Lincoln, and the next day making a sort of popular amends and sc^uaring his 
accounts with the vulgar, by low flings at tie South, and a style of double en- 
fcndrr, that shows a wonderful proficiency in blackguard scholarship. The li^ 



76 0BSERV'ATI05S IN THE NORTH. 

of thifi party is equivocation. The writer was <^ld that the editor of the WorM 
was at bottom a peace man, but bad fouijd it necessary for the influence of his 
paper, to u^e the pretence of '' Constitutional Union " to catch the fools who 
believed in the possibility of any hueh thing : an example not only of Yankee 
newspaper morals, but a damsing evidence of the incoherence and rottenness of 
the so-called Democratic patty in the North, which finds such hnse equivocation 
Decessary to sustain it.* 

In the second class of Southern sympathizers, wc may place that large num- 
ber of persons in the North who persistently deny the right and policy of se- 
cession, but who'feel for the people of the Confederacy, when they read of their 
poverty and sufferings, and think they have been too terribly punished for their 
errour. This sympathy is purely sentimental, and is quite worthless. It abounds • 
in the parlours of New York. There are numbers of people in the North — 
ladies v?ho have not unsexed themselves, and men who have not sold their sen- 
sibilities to the demons of faction — who are horrified and indigR:;nt at the cruel- 
ties of the war, and who pity our exiled women and houseless little children; 
but they will not admit the justice of the Confederate cause, and concede noth- 
ing to us but vague and fruitless coinmisseration. It is very easy to sit in a 
cushioned chair, with a full stomach, and si/mpatlihe ! The South does not 
want such sentimentalisms. She usks for her justification in the eyes of &od 
and man, and disdains a pity, that, denying it, oft'ers a comfort that dishonours 
her. She will be content with no abridgement of her right. She has no claim 
on mawkish charities: no beggars' plea for the half pence and broken dishes of 
Northern philanthropy. ^ 

In the third place, we come t<f the '■'■ Peace party" proper in the North. It 
is composed of those who t^ink tliat the war is essentially a crime and outrage : 



*I am fullj persuaded that a majority of the War Democracy in the Nortt, are quite as much 
resolved upon the extirpation of Southern slavery in the war aa the Black Republicans themselves; 
although for different reasons. They have nothing to do with the mor.il question of slavery ; 
they disclaim all sentimentalism on the subject; bat they think that slavery must be abolished 
by the war for State reasons, because it is an element of discord, and the Union cannot be firml;;r 
reconstructed without this necesflary .sacritice to its future interests. They do not put this opin- 
ion openly before the public. Yot I have found it entertained by men who are even ranked ae 
" Conservatives " in the North. The people of the Confederacy may assure themselves that 
there is a largo majority in the North, without particular reference to the Black Republican or- 
ganization, who are resolved on the abolition of slavery as the fruit aad consequence of th-e 
•war; and that suoh abolition is therefore the foregone and inevitable conclusion of submisi^lonip 
no matter under what circumaUnces, in what form, or to what master. 



OBSERVATIONS IX THE NORTH. 77 

that amelioration of it will not do ; that it is quite as much in the interest of the 
North as of the South to stop it ; that the South rcpresenta in it not only her 
constitutional ri^htp, but the traditions of the past and the whole cause of Amer- 
ican liberty, and that in the defeat of the Confederate arms must go down the 
liberties of the North along with the independence of the South. Such intel- 
ligent sympathy is of real value to the South. But the party which goes so far 
i.s much weaker in numbers than is generally supposed by the Confederate peo- 
ple, and may be counted by hundreds, while the other classes, who all come, by 
a very violent councctiou, under the comnion catch-word of " Seceeh," number 
thousanda. It is especially represented by the New York News : a newspaper 
which is a marked exception to the rules of Yankee journalism in its decency 
and humanity of style, no less than in the real value of itn arguments, and 
vhich may be taken as one undoubted, however small, example of Northern 
virtue in this war. 

I muj^t always remember for myself the kindness^ and encouragement I ob- 
tained from many members of this peace party proper of the North — those 
persons who held to their noble and simple faith despite political persecution, 
despite social ban, despite every injury and insult that could bo offered them. 
Few they are; but let the, South give them the full measure of their reward. 
I could not escape friends such as these. They invited me into their families, 
and in (juite half a dozen places in Brooklyn (where I chose to reside in a 
hotel) 1 had constantly offered to me the privileges of a home, and could al- 
ways obtain an unfailing and affectionate welcome. Again and again I have 
met p-^r^ous who would say to me : *' Can we do nothing for you ? Do not hes- 
itate to state any of your nece<.-ities. There is nothing too groat or too small 
you may ask. from your friends in the North." I had no occasion for myself, 
or opportunity for those of my countrymen less fortunate, to tax such friend- 
ship ; but its cordial and persistent offers made none the less impression upon 
me. 

But these p<;f>j''''% it must be constantly remembered, are too small an element 
in Northern p.n acs to demand, in that respect, much •onsideration. They 
constitute merely the skeleton of a party. There is so Utile virtue in public 
opinion in the North, so little that can be effected there by appeal to principle, 
that wc mu.«t look for any considerable cnlargonient of the peace party in the 
North to the force of military successes, or the exhibition of undismayed endu- 
rance on the part of the South. We shall sccu-cely make converts or reclaim 
backsliders unless by such persuasion. It is the military situation from which 



78 OBSERVATIONS IX THE NORTE. 

the North takes its practical tijought and purpose ; and thi.'? wliioh coataius the 
only hope of the South. 



WhilQ referring to party opiniouB ia the North, I may estend the allusion t-o 
a certain ill-defined collection .of people found in the bulk of Southern refugees 
and residents in the North. These people are very much abused in the New 
York newspaperp, and deservedly so thase oi" them who have preferred a cow- 
ardly ease in the enemy's country to the hard but honourable trials of war ia 
their own. These derelict Confederates are the most contemptible of creatures. 
But it is only just to say that they do not broadly include all that much-reviled 
class of Souihern refugees in. the enemy's country There are exceptions ; some 
few and honourable men detained in the North by the coafinea of their domes- 
tic life, doing a good work, contributing to our prisoners, not noisy in their 
demonstratioas, but holding their opinions decorously within the sanctity of 
their homes, or within the pale of the close society oV those who think with 
them. But there' are hundreds and thousands of these sympathetic .absentees 
who, in a spirit of the slieeresfc cowardice and the grossest selfishness, exploit 
their Southern " patriotism " in the garish hotels of New York, and are trying 
to pass their time pleasantly among the creature comforts of Yaukeedom, while 
the beloved people of the South are left to ta.ke for themselves all the priva- 
tion and risk of the w;ir. Many of them live extravagantly ; not a few gamble 
in the Gold Rooms. And these refugees, dough-faced adventurers, fugitives 
from the conscription, and cowards of every stripe, who are bloating and pam- 
pering themselves in Yankeedom, talk "gecesh" as loudly and bravely in the 
New York Hotel as in the Spottswood at Richmond. Despite the civilities the 
writer met in this former house, and its singular freedom from the pinchbeck 
of Yankee hot^d life, he must remember occasions of disgust in seeing so many 
spruce "refugees" feasting, and wining, and guzzling in the delicate sops of 
Ne\e York luxury, talking Southern "patriotism" as fierce as baited bears, and 
in the next breath comparing their gains in cotton and the profits of their last 
mysterious trips to Nashville and New Orleans. 

It is singular that tliis class are invariably the trumpeters of President DavLs. 
They are so excessively patriotic that they wov.'^hip him morniug, day and 
night; they recent evtny thing that does not represent the Confederacy in the 
colours of the rose ; and every expression of Southern opinion, no matter what 
its manly aad incontestiible proofs of attachment to the Confederate cause, that 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH, 79 

implicij a mistake on the part of Presidunr Davis, is fiercely denounced and 
forthwith tomahawked by these vagabond knights of Sccusdia. 

The writer was informed that this peculiar Davis njania, at the expense of 
everybody else and every interest else in the Confederacy, prevails as muoli 
among the Confederate absentees and "sympathizers" iu London and, in Paris 
as in Xew York. This is not unaccountable, at least in good part. Many of 
those creatures arc the agentt; and emissaries of J^resident Davis, and, through, 
^is partiality, are reaping rich pecuniary rewiyrd in pretending to political ad- 
ventures in the North and in Europe, and in flying certain financial kites for 
their own benefit. Thus the writer recollects to have mct^ in a company in 
New York, a little puddy gentleman, ruddy with good living;, who could not be 
persuaded that Mr. Davis was not the '' Moses " of Confederate deliveranoe. 
At parting, he hoped that the writer would recommend a certain financial 
Hcheme that a certain friend of his had gone to Richmond to lay before the au- 
thorities, by which millions of dollars were to be raised in Europe, after the 
approved faahion of extracting suiibeam.s from cucumbers. 

The " sympathizei's " the writer has described may well dread a party in the 
South sworn ^ uphold the standards of citizenship and society in the Confede- 
racy ; pledged to disown them whe'i. their tardy steps shall be turned towards 
our liborated country ; and jealously resolved to preserve the fruits of our in- 
dependence for those who have watei-fid them with their blood, or brought thoiD 
to their perfection by unwearied labour and sincere solicitude. 



CHAPTEU XII. 

The True ViLur, of rai; MiLiTA:?T Sitttation ik thp; Xorto. — The Que?tit»E of Endurance 
on tho part of the Confederacy. 

Noveniber 18. — Au encouragement for' tlic Coufederate States in this war, of 
wliich our people liaye but little idea, is to be found in the true value of tte 
military situation. The military successes of the North in the past campaign, 
and the glittering t-urface of prosperity in its borders, may incline the South 
to momentary fits of despondency, and to uncomfortable comparisons ©f re- 
30urceR; but when wo come to reflect bravely and intelligently upon these, there 
are found causes of encouragement, which, althougli not obviou.-, are none the 
Jess real. 

When a Confederate obtains the opportunity of observation in the North, and 
looks only at the Burface of things, he is powerfully and painfully struck with 
the contrast they present to bis scanty and war-ridden country. In some re- 
spects the contrast is appalling. He sees their large cities choked with a super- 
abundance of able-bodied men; be visits military depots bursting with war ma- 
terial ; he learns in Wall street that, despite the expenditures of the war, vast 
additions have been yiade to Yankee wealth, in the development of mineral re- 
sources, copper, iron and f^ilver, along the whole slope of the I?ocky 31ouutaiu8j 
he is told that petroleum alonti will, in a few years, be an article of export to 
the extent of one hundred and fifty niillions of dollars, and that it has already 
founded — rtiuca more po than " codfi.-h'' — a distinct aristocracy in the North; 
fae sees everywhere an almost riotous material plenty; he finds Nevr York drunk 
with wealth and extravagance, every day vomiting into Broadway and the laby- 
Hntbs of Central l*ark a dizzy stream of luxurious dissipation, and an endless 
procession of the triumphs of '• Shoddy." The first imprssaion of such a con- 
trast, is that of immense endurance in the North, and the practical superiority 
of Lrr war power in men, mat( rial and finances, over the military means cf the 
Srju' . Thut i--i the improeiiou which generally comes back to us from flying 



UBSKRVATI0N3 m THE NORTH. 81 

visitors to the North, whose observations cannot be otherwise than hasty and 
fluperlioial. Yet it ia of all fii-yt itaprossioas the one raost thoroughly false. 

'lUc sbo<^.k of contrast is soon over to the Confederate who remains in the 
North long enough to make a steady examination of the real tfpirit of the North 
in this war, and its relation to the apparent .superabundance of resources in mea 
and means. He gets a new light when he penetrates the surface of things j 
and if there is one truth which he. discovers more plainly than any other in his 
observations in the North, it Is that the resources, which at first struck him so 
strongly, are but to a Utile extent practically available for the purposes of the 
war. 

It is necessary to come to facts to show this. It was my fortune to be in the 
North during the great exigency ^f recruiting their armies after Grant's butch- 
ery of the old Pot-omac veterans, and the immense expenditure of Yankee life 
in the summer's campaign. The system of Yankee recruiting was then, as I 
saw it, debased downright to the expedient of ibreign enlistments and the arm- 
ing of the negro. It is these means — scarcely anything more than these — 
which is recruiting the armies of the enemv. Their whole system of reeruit- 
Ing has paired to this wretched shift; and heyond ilir aJwrf life of Kwh a rnili- 
iary expedient, the South haif little or nothiiuj to Jotr. It is positively known 
that the Yankee armies are recruiting almost exclusively with negro trovops; and 
information has been given me that at least three- fourths of the anny^of the 
•Tamos are composed of negro troops. 

It is not af;sei->ting too much to say that the North must soon be practically 
more pinched for the want of anns-beiiring men than is the Confederacy. The 
writer has not caught at loose assertions or idle rumours. The information 
(%mes from a general officer in the Yankee armies avouud Richmond, tliat the 
half-million draft yielded not more than seventy thousand nftcfire soldiers. It 
rxs patched up with infamous frauds and absurd " commntatioas '' to conciliate 
the opposition in the Presidential election of last November. In that election 
the vote of all the Yankee armies around llichmond was fiijhfeen tJiouxand, that 
being the proportion of native born and naturalized eiti/.ens of the United State.-* 
in the combined hosts of Ulysses Grant and Benjamin Franklin Butler. 

The difTieultii s of recruiting in the North are fast verging to the necessity of 
an actual conscription. To a great extent they must reach this dreaded and 
dire con"V.i-*on i;-? jho nest call for men. It is only necessary to apply fhc inva- 
riable luw 0^ *-''rr'b' ^^^ dctnrti!;] U' shov; Vi'hat mu'^t be the difficulties in raising 
men, when we find bounties paid in New York exceeding one thousand dollars 



82 ' OBSE]IVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

a head, llic prie« of a single soldier. The bloated metropolis of the >\'orth may 
be able to afford such a largess. But in the rural districts, ia the counties, and 
in the small corporations of the North, the ajstern of bounties is already broken 
.down. Counties in the State of New York have been designated to the writer 
which had already expended, each, about a million and a half dollar*! in buying 
human ficsh; and others were named which had accumulated, on account of 
military bouatie;' alone, a debt exceeding the sum total of taxable values withio 
their jurisdiction. 

It is under the preasure of the practical want of arms-bearing nsfin, and in 
view of the fatal conclusion of an actual conscription, that the <;|ue^stion has be- 
come uppermost in the Northern mind, how long the South can endure the 
necessities of the war. This simple question of mduraiKe has entirely super- 
seded all other methods of the Holution of the war, all former (Questions of for- 
eign ibterferenee, political revolutions, financial convulsions, &;c.; and it is to all 
Northern men who discern the signs of the times, the one practical iimi that is 
to determine the destiny of the South. The writer is fully assured that all in- 
telligent men of the North, including even leading- Black Eepubliciins who have 
not hesitiited to confess themselves, are agreed that the North will never stand 
an actual conscription, and that if the war is pushed to that point by unflagging 
resolution, and unbroken endurance on the part of the South, it is just there 
that it will break down by the weight of an insufierable burden put upon one 
of the belligei'enig. The conclusion is not au extravagant one. In the South 
the oonscription is doubtless imposed upon some few unwilling individuals; but 
in the North, with its inferiour motive in the war, and its peculiar character, it 
is utterly impossible to execute a conscription law upon a people who are wholly 
and absolutely opposed to it, who are not fighting under any doctrine of parr.- 
mouut necessity, and who have already given the most abundant proofs, that 
even the Yankee God of iiioiify is but little effective in enticing them to the 
battle-field.^ 



^Tbe eity of New York is scoured by "bounty agents ;" yet even at thie great centre of pop- 
ulfttion in the North, tbese men find it necessary to their business to kidnap and drxjg recruits,, 
iind to entrnp them by the moat mon|trou8 devices. Men are pyatomatically made lirunk to 
procuro their coasent to enlist; Bimpla foreigners are put in " the Teombs," on false charges* 
trumped up in emigrant boarding houses, and then persuaded that their enly means of extrica- 
tion is to go into the army; the drinking-bouEes, the gambling hells, the low boarding-house* 
en the wharres, every sink of iniquity, and every abode cf ignorance, is constantly watched by 
the bounty flgf?nt for his victim. Those practices are the oceurrencefl of every day in New 
York. I happened to be cognisant of :i recruiting affair, which took place ic tie hotel where 1 



OBSERVATIONS L\ THE NORTH. Si 

It In almost impossible to describe tbe dread with which the Northern people 
coateinplftte the slighte,st possibility of a couscriptioa. Eveu the draft of last 
fiuramer, which only sli;^htly threatened t^ueh a conclasion, wu.s shunned as the 
plague. When it wa.s thought that some of the ward qiiotas would be enforced 
in Baltimore, hundreds of persons left their homes and families there, fled for 
shelter to Xew York, and for months remained there in clo.sc eoncealm^ut. It 
is well known that that city must be gingerly touched by the authorities of Lin- 
coln; for it contains seventy thousand Irish, and, what is more, one hundred 
and fifty thou.sand people of the Catholic faith, who constitute in mass a pretty 
large seed of revolution, and who are considered to bavc made up their mind.^ 
about the dral't in the summer of 18G3. 

Observatioqs which the writer made in the North, with ceaseless industry 
»nd under the stimulus of constant curiosity, filled his midd with the broad and 
strong conviction that never was the independence of the South more firmly a?.- 
sured than at this time, on the single condiLioii that the r-pirit of the people and 
the army docs not break by some unworthy impatience, or is not deliberately 
broken down by insane persistence in folly on the part of Davis and his clique of 
t-oadiee and encouragers. A Northern conscription is the goal to which the South 
must pres-s, and which already it closely. approaches. A little endurance and it is 
won. It is the vital question to all intelligent persons ia tl|e North, how lon[^- 
our people will endure. They laugh at our expectations of political revolutioas 
or financial iTipture in the North ; and they contend that the time is past when 
we may expect to win our, independence by any grand military coup, or force of 
military succ^^cs. All these calculations are lightly or insolently regarded by 
Northern men. Their real anxiety is the measure of endurance on the part of 
the South. In a large intercourse with Northern politicians, the writer found 
that their great curiosity wa,s as to the real spirit of the South, and the ques- 
tions of thinking men among them invariably went to the point of the probable 
term of Southern endurance. He saw the value of this quality in Northern 
eyes. He beeajne thoroughly convinced that by force of it alone the South 
would obtain her independence a:3 sure as the sun would rise on the morrow; 



resided i& Brooklyn. Two men hud picked up iu Lroadway an idiotic negro boy. They en- 
ticed him into the holei, coniined him in au upper room, and for a week (iliod the poor creature 
with confectionery, bon-bouH and Iha best French brandy; until, at la-st, obtaining his oonsoat 
to enlist, they atafed him into a hack end drove him to the nearest recruiting office. They gave 
tie negro one hundr&d dollars in small bills, and pocketed the balanoo of the bounty. — I mc v 
add that one of theao parties wtje a Seutherii "refugee," and beas-.*d of bU eiploit» 



S4 OBSERVATIONS LV THE NORTH. 

that such vras the silent but general couee.«.siou of the Northern iaind j and that 
the future of the Confederate States was just at this time, and in the approach- 
ing e3:igeney of a Northern conscription, briglitencd with a surer prospect of 
"ndepeDdcnec than any former situation of affairs had over afforded. 

There arc two parties in the North, perhaps equally' intelligent, and each 
' laiming to draw their opinions from Siuthern sourecs of information, wnich 
■liffer as to the real spirit of the South : one claiming that it is resolute and 
r.veh in the V^t necevssity desperate ; the other contending tLat it is fast being 
broken hy reverses, and will end in submisbion. One finds this question in 
•every circle in the North. Reliable information upon it is far more valuable to 
the Wasbington Government than maps of all the fortificatiopj? in the Confed- 
erate States. To copvince the North of the spirit of the Southern people, ia 
more impoitiiat than'half a dozen victories, for it is to convince them of the 
hopelet-isness of the war, and to put before their eyes the immediate aeees^iity of 
i-onscription. 

It is the ^iuiple lesson of resolution which the South mTiat learn. It h the 
lesson for all cveiUs. YVheu there is no occasion for hope, then make it the sea- 
son of dc'^pcraiiuu ; iur tliis last quality is quite as good to di&stiade the Yankee 
i'rom the war as conlidence itself. It will be easily inspired even in the worst 
estremjty the futute can possibly have, by a simple regard of the conjsequeaces ■ 
of .subjugafioa. 

It i& u6eiC;-;s to expatiate, unless to those who are willfally blind, the tl-Leme 
• if subjugatio'i. If the spirit of desperate resolution has not^ already been 
ilrawn from v/hat is known of the enemy's warfare, it will not be easily pro- 
voked by any other arguments. That spirit once fully demonstrated to the 
North, and the war is at an end. It is the only price of peace. There is not 
'1 scintilla cf hvpe for the South in any political movement, or any peace nego- 
fiatioES in the X(>rth. It may be subjugation under a di^-g-uiso, or subjugation 
by steps, but it is .subjugation at last. 

In view of {he fttte which threatens us in submisftion, and in view of the 
' reward assured to us by simple perseverance, will' the South falter? Will she 
',vho has endured so much fall away in a dastardly despair, and coiwA all for 
aatight, bet?ausc, while she has Htrongtli, site yet Las not resolution for Vhat rc- 
"Tiiains ? Yilll fhe meanly oreak down in the last stretch of the eourie, .when 
t}iQ prize and the sanctuary glitter before her eye« and the pursuing tread of 
'.tortal foe Is behind her ? History records the failure of many reirolatioGS in 
■heir Srst stage: it Is not often disgraced by the *tory of surrender because 



OBSERVATIONS LN THE NORTH. 



85 



of tlie delay, and not llic uncert;iinty of success. Surely there is no place ia 
it for Uie repetition of this infrequent story at the hands of a people already 
ranked by fom^ier tcstii and endurances- of this war among tlie most horoie of 
ma.nk;iid. 



CHAI/TKIl XIII. 

JauRJJAL NoTKCS. — Letter from a Catholic Friend — An Evening Party in Brooklyn — Political 
1' reaching— Renegaiis Yirginiang. 

Kovcmhcr 20. — I have received a letter from a \ortkem lady which is so 
fijl of sympathy and of generous Christian sentimeut for my distressed coun- 
try, that I have taken the pains to transcribe some passages from it in my 
journal. It is in reply to what I wrote, perhaps too gloomily, of my situation : 
my ears assailed by motes of /ankee triumph over late misfortunes of my 
eountry, and my heart filled with anxiety on accoxint of the disappointment of 
mv exchange : — 

"It is hard — peTh.ap,s the hardest of hard things — to believe, *o wait, to look up. The other 
day^ was utterly disheartened about our ea«jfie. News came to ua of grave reversee. One 
hops after another died out. And then whit« ashes lay cold and cheerleas upon my heart* 
The.i ruy good husband, who is always a eomi'urt to me, brought the prayer-book, and read 
;-^)ine of thoae tctbcs .lO full of sympathy and so suggestive of faith and hope. So I, dear 
&iend, would pit down by you and aay to you words uttered Ly One who suffered. Listen:. 
■* Take heed unto me and hear me : how I mourn and am vexed. They are minded to do me 
niisohief, 80 malicioHfily siro they set against me. My heart is disquieted within me ; fearfuJ- 
aess and trembliiig are come upUn me ; my enemies are daily on hand to swallow me np. Thoy 
dally mistake my words ; all they imagine is to do me evil. They mark my stepiJ when they 
. k«y wait for me ; pvea mine own familiar friend whom I trusted hath laid great wait for me. 
iscveriheUnB, I havd put my trust in God : I will not be afrafe what man can do unto me. Be 
Thou my stronghold, whereunto I may alw*ys resort. Thou ha-'t jiromised to help me, for Thou 
art my House of defeac? and my Castle.' 

" It is sad indeed to think of the thousands who are lying in misery all over oar land ; aad 
all the while deop.>r aad wider .flows the sea of blood. Ah, we need all that God can give us of 
grace and etreagth, or our human hearts would break. I would say human words of hope to 
y«u if I oould. I haye found how vain is the help of man. Bat, dear friend, an old, quiiiat 
writer has said : ' 11 Man's extremity is God'n opportunity.* I wit-h you would writ« fully, un- 
reservedly. I shall not wonder if you do not. It is much to ask yon to lake me wholly on 
faith. At any rate, nnlest you tell me that my letters annoy yos, or subject you to iaeonve- 
nienc-e or suspicion, I shall write yon under cover to 

" I got a letter fropi some of your poor friends sent on for A^ehange. They are lyiog withia 
sight of the haren whore thoy weuld ba ; but ".Tatting and fearing every hour lest they be 



OBSERVATIOXS IN THE NORTH. 87 

torned back to t,'i. ir prison. The trouble floern? to bo between Butler (T mate the sign of tho 
CroB3 in wriUng his name) and the War Department. I had hoped so earnestly that you would 
Se speedily exchanged. What does it mean? Can anything be don'o? Write me fully about 
your delay and its cauEOs. Who can tell what I might do ? I have some influential frienda 
who are bo fortunate as to be — black. If I can make them of use to you, I will count it no 
dishonour to cflll them friends. I will make friends of the mnmmon of unrightoousnes-s for 
your s*ke. Only t^!I me how tho caae stands — and trust me." 



I was invited .-'Oine niglits ago, by iiu esteemed friend, iu Brooklyn, to lueet 
at his house, aud tiike tea with a numljer of gentlemen who were in sympathy 
T?-ith the South, and interested to get all the information they could of Confede- 
rate affairs. I found at at an curly hour in the evening sonic fifteen or twenty 
■j;entlcmcn aKsembled, among whom I believe there were only two of Southern 
birth. Aft«r the offices of hospitality had been abundantly performed by our 
excellent host, a " free talk" was at once opened among the company. 

The conversation turned principally upon "peace movements." With refer- 
ence to the negotiations at Niagara Falls, one of the company retoarked that 
he had S(cn Mr. Ilolcombe, who avowed to him that ho had been approaclied in 
this matt«r by Northern men, and that the suggestion of his part in the con- 
ference with Greeley had wholly arisen in this way. That is, I suppose, the 
simple Professor had beOn thimble-rigged, and was ashamed of the ridlculou,s 
part he had been made to play in amateur diplomacy. 

I was asked as to the real design of Vice-President Stephens' mission in 186S. 
r. explained that all the Confederate public knew of it was President Davis' pub- 
lished letter about the civiHzed code of war, *!(;i\; although there was a suspicion,, 
judging from the importance of the eiaissary, and the absurd futility of his go- 
ing- to Washington merely to protest against the enemy's tjruclties in conducting 
rhe war, that he was secretly charged with a much more important and practical 
errand, which could scarcely have been I&<s then to sound Lincoln on the ques- 
tion of pe^ce. 

A gentleman in the company remarked that he had it from credible authority 
(which he did not disclose) that Stephens was fully empowered, in certain con- 
tingencies-*, to propose peace ; that the President of the Confederacy had sent 
him on this extraordinary visit to Wa.shington, anticipating a great victory of 
Lee's army iu Pennsylvania; that the i,*eal design of the mission was dijcon- 
certtd by the fatal day of Gettysburg, which occurred when 3Ir. St^^phens was 



88 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 



near Fortress Monroe; and that it was iu the insolent niomeuts oi" (Kid Yankee 
success that he was so sharply rebuffed by the Washington autloritics. 

This gentleman thought, considering the conjuncture of the occasion, that the 
President of the Confederacy, in seeking to signalize what he supposed would be 
a oreat victory of his arms, by a distinct and formal proposition of peace at 
Washino'ton, had never occupied a prouder position, or one that better merited 
the applause of the Christian world. 

I could not agree with him, and ({uoted, against sueh action of President 
Davis, his comparatively recent letter, to Governour Vance, of North Carolina, 
OB the futility and impropriety of essaying to open any special negotiations with 
the enemy on peace. There were the many distinct avowals of the purpose of 
the war on our side, in the declarations and act<^ of the Government, invariably 
protesting our simple desire " to be let alone," which were already a clear and 
standing tender of peace; the issues could not be made more distinct or more 
urgent than in the official record. ^»'hy should we go beyond it by attempts at 
kitchen conferences, which might not only be insolently rebuftcd by the enemy, 
to the damage of our stli-rcspcct, but which, as our experiences had so far 
shown, were invariably misinterpreted, and not without plausibility, as tigns of 
decadence and weakness in our military affairs. 

Dr. supported m}- part of the argument strongly.. He thought the 

honour and self-respect of the Confederates had been lowered by these devious 
and unworthy attempts at peace. They were, of course, anxious for peace ; but. 
having once announced it.s terms sufficiently, they would do right, while await- 
in<' the overture of the enemy, not to betray their inixiety, or open any unnccei;- 
sary discussions of the subject. They cuuld give no better evidence of their 
resolution than by such conduct. 

By the way, Dr. is the only one of the many '• symputhi/.ers " I have met 

in the North who has constantly warned me of the danger of over-estimating the 
value of this party, and, in fact, ha.s decried their elaim to any important con- 
sideration. He renewed this subject in the conversiition to which I have re- 
ferred He insisted that the peace men iu New York and Brooklyn represented 
but little wealth or social position, and that the influences combined in these ad- 
vantages were almost exclusively ranged on the side of the war. I noticed that 
none of the company attempted to contradict this repeated declaration. And 
this, although all men, from individual pride if nothing else, are dispased to as- 
sert the importiincc of the party of which they arc members. 



OBSErvVATIUNS IN THE NORTH. g9 

There is published io the Freeman )i JonrnaJ, of some recent date, a letter 
from Bishop Klder, (Roman Catholic), to the military commandant at Nash- 
ville, on the subject of the requisition of the authorities' to have included in the 
litanies of the church prayers for Abraham Lincoln. I have never seen this 
subject so neatly and effectually disposed of as in a single paragraph of this let- 
ter. At first view, it might appear that the churches had made too much of 
this point; that to pray for the Yankee President might be enjoined as a duty 
of simple charity ; and that to deny for him an act of devotion in which all 
men have a claim, was to make unchristian distinctions, and to raise unnecessary 
difficulties. A web of sophistry has certainly obscured this matter very much 
even to honest minds. But Bishop Klder breaks this web with a stroke of his 
pen. In a few simple words he puts the qu(,'stion so fully and plainly that in 
his very statement of it he determines it, leaving neither necessity for argument 
uor room for dispute. 

He writes : " The designating of an individual by his name, or by a special 
title, is not a part of my worship of God. And though if it would assist to 
excite devotion, it might be done innocently, and even laudably, when there 
would be no danger of its beirig misunderstood ; yet to do it, not for excitimj 
feelings of di'ijotion, hut avoir cdli/ for tlie jmrjiosc 'f niaLing 2}''''>fission of al- 
legiance, and trhen it icoidd be understood as acknowledging a rigid on tlic 'part 
of the secular jtoicers, civil or military, to interfere in the arrangement of reli- 
gious worship — this would, to my mind, be a criminal betrayal of my sacred 
trust and a deep injury to the church, in which alone are my hopes of eternal 
salvation." 

If there is anything more conspiculously infamous than another in the con- 
duct, of the Yankees iu this war, it is their s^weepiiig and prescriptive applica- 
tion of political tests : not only to all ages and sexes ; not only to all human in- 
stitutions of society, from the council and court to the district school; but, at 
last, to the churches themselves. The churches are required to pray for Abra- 
ham Lincoln ; next to preach for Abraham Lincoln. The sequence is logical 
and unavoidable. 

I have observed that it is already a test of orthodoxy in most of the churches 
of the North, that the decrees of Abraham Lincoln should be preached there 
as well as the word of God. Thus I read sometime ago in a Yankee newspa- 
per, a communication complaiuiug that the sermon of a certain distinguished 
preacher was a disappointment an'd an outrage, because "there was nothing to 



90 ' OBSERVATIONS IX THE XORTH. 

indicate that it was preached in the midst of a bloody rebellion ;" <' on word of 
thankfulness" for the emancipation of the negroes; "no Christian rejoicing," &c. 

Where is all this to end ? The habit of connecting politics witli praying and 
preaching in the Ya,nkee churches has already had the effect, by the unavoida- 
ble law of association, of breaking down the barriers of reverence. The effect 
of the association is, indeed, the most serious thing to be urged against the 
mania of political preaching; it is the direct occasion of irreverence; it intro- 
duces into the language of the pulpit the phrases of the hustings; and it must end 
at last in a blasphemy as prurient and disgusting as it is awful. Henry Ward 
Eeecher, referring in one of his sermons to what he considered the hasty com- 
mittal of the Democratic party at Chicago, to the hopelessness of the war, just 
before the tide of Northern successes set in to betray them, finds it necessary 
to explain' himself by calling the Chicago Convention " GtOd's Trap." One 
shudders at words to exceed which there is nothing in the vocabulary of blas- 
phemy. 

It was said recently by an English writer that there was no loBger any vital 
Christianity in the North. He might have added that even what was left of its, 
forms, was fast being converted by the passions of this wra- into mere academies' 
of politics-^a class only a little more pretentious than tlic hustings and ward- 
rooms in the party education of the mob. 



Among all the iuiiiiiious monstrosities of the war, is there anything to com- 
pare with a Yankeefied Virginia woman I The misfortune of a marriage with 
a Yankee negrophilist is yet no reason that a Virginia woman should share the 
ferocity of the creature who is her husband, gloat over the sufferings of her 
blood and kindred, join in the cowardly twitters of Dutch-Yankee shopkeeping 
"aristocracy" about " barbarous rebels." Is it possible that the heart of a 
Virginia woman can thus divest itself, not only of all patriotic pride, but all 
generous sympathy and all natural instinct, forgetting, alike, the graves of the 
dead and the iamily altars of the living, to find, not an indifferent specacle, but 
an exulting prospc<it in the blood and tears of her own people ! At what paltry 
price of sympathizing with a Yankee husband's fanaticism, and making herself 
agreeable to the company which surrour-ds her, is sold the birthright of a Vir- 
ginian, and the natural affections of a life-time ! ' 

Priceless is that birthright. The man must, indeed, be lost to all feeling, 



OBSERVATIONS IX THE NORTH. 91 

and the womaa worse, wlio does not feei a seatiment of piide that there courses 
in his or her veins the blood of Yii'ginia— that historic blood, which has won 
the first lioiiours in two revolutions, and whose golden track illuminates the re- 
cords of tliis hemisphere. However obscure the life of the individual, there is 
pride to know that it is bound up in that of an iimnortal State, and that it shares, 
if by nothing moso than the name of A'irginia, the honours' of history, the 
friendships of the virtuous, and the respect even of enemies. Who would 
barter this priceless inheritance for Xorthern wealth; the society of a nation of 
shop-keepers ; the base creature-comforts of a vulgar luxury ; the belly-timber 
and the upholstery of '• Shoddy" aristocracy ! 

Not in insolent self-exultation, but with a profound sense of gratitude, and in 
deep humility, do I thank God that I am a Virginian. And to whatever ob- 
scurity fute consigns me, may I be known by my acquaintances to have worn 
that name, however humbly, at least not unworthily. 



CHAPTER ^IV. 

A Comparative Viuw of Isorihern DESPOTisjr. — The Record of Mr. Lincola'a Aiminis- 
t rat Ion. 

There arc many persons to be found in the North, who admitting the rapid 
decline since the commenceuient of the war, of their government to despo- 
tism, attempt a consolation by the assertion that a similar lapse of liberty has 
taken place iu the Confederate States. This opinion obtains, to a remarkable 
extent, even among those ■who are not unfriendly to the South, and certainly 
are not disposed to do her injuctice. It must be largely ascribed to the very 
prevalent ignorance in the North, even among mea otherwise well-informed and 
intelligent, of the internal policy of the Confederate States, and of the true 
spirit of their peculiar legislation with reference to the war. It is not only the 
Black Republican party that circulates the idea of an iron-handed tyranny in 
the Confederate States; but that idea is admitted to a large extent in the minds 
of those who arc disposed to think well of the Southern experiment, but arc 
not proof against the impressions derived from such peremptory laws r.s require 
nien to take up arms in mass, to devote certain property to the govermoent, and 
to hold themselves, generally, in subjection to the necessities of the war. These 
measures wear the appearance of the machinery of despotism to them ; simpl} 
because they do not undcj-staud their true nature; while they add to their igno 
ranee the mistake of viewing them from a stand-point which puts tlie Nortl 
and the South in the same cii'cumstances. 

It is quite true that the conscription and impressment laws of the Confeder- 
acy are apparently harsh measures. Yet there is something to be said of them 
beyond the justiticotion of necessity; and this is, that they are really nothing 
more than the organized expressions of the j7oy/»/r/;' devotion of the South in 
the war ; intended only to give effect and uniformity to it. They are not in- 
stances of violent legislation imposed upon the people ; they are merely the for- 
mulas of willing and patriotic contribution of men and means to a war, in which 
not only a nation fights for its very existence, but each individual for the prac- 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 93 

tical stake of his own fortune. It is diflicultto make Northern men understantl 
this: that, Avhile they have a mortal terrqpr of the draft and other demands of 
the war, the people of the South are cheerfully willing to take up arms, and to 
devote their substance to the Government. It is thus that the conscription and 
impressment laws, which in the Xorth would be the essence of despotism, are 
really in the South not edicts of violence, but mere conventionalisms of the 
war, through which the patriotism of tho people acts with effect and regu- 
larity. 
C But beyond these laws, even the appcaram-f, of despotism stops in the Soutli- 

W ern Confederacy. We have only to compare the established routine there with 
what we constantly observe in the Xorth, to show how divergent, since the firsti 
gun was tired at Fort Sumter, have been the histories of the billigerents on all 
questions affecting political and civil liberty. There are no Military Govei'nours 
.in the Confederacy; there is no martial law there; there is, properly called, no 
political police there — our police establishment being limited to a mere detec- 
tive force to apprehend, in the commuijities in which the}'' are placed, spies and 
emissaries of the enemy. At no time in this war have soldiers ever been placed 
at a polling-place in the Confederacy ; at no time have newspapers ever been 
suppressed; and at no time has a single instance 'of arbitrary arrest, or of im- 
prisonment without distinct charges and the opportunity to reply, occurred within 
the Confederate jurisdiction. These are facts which carry their own .com- 
ment on the base reflection, that in this war the South has declined along with 
the North in its civil administration, and has kept company with it on its road 
to despotism. 

When we speak of the despotism at Washington, we do not design a figure or 
an exaggeration of rhetoric. We merely name a clearly defined species of hu- 
man government, as we would any other fact in history. The Presidential elec- 
'^ tion, just past, has given occasion for a full review of the acts of the Washing- 
' ton authorities. We may sum up that review in some brief paragraphs — di- 
viding it into two branches: first, Mr. Lincoln's unconstitutional course on the 
right's of \he States on the slavery question ; second, his course on the rights of 
his own people in all matters of civil liberty — these two classes of outrage being 
a couveuient division of his Administrntion, viowed both as to its inten- 
tions upon the South, and its effects upon the North. 

I- % 

■As to the Slavery question, it is only neces.sary .to state the record. 
]. The convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln President of Lho 



9^ OBSSEYATI0:sS IN TilE XURTH. 

United States in 1860, passed a resolution affirming "the maiatenance inviolate 
of the riirlits of the States, and especially tlic i-Ujlil oj rack State to order and ' 
conti'il il.< oi':n_ dciiu stic institutions ac.cordiny to its own Judgment codusivelj/. 

2. Mr. Lincoln- in his inaugural of Marr'h, 1861, in'?erted this resolution at 
length, and declared that to ^im it would be " a law," and added, *'l now re- 
iterate these seutlniciits," and "in doing so, I only press upon the public atten- 
tion the most conclusive, eridrnce of vldch tin- case is sziscejptible, that the pro- 
pert)/, P'cu-e, c iid ■'•rrnritt/ of no section are not to he in any^vise endangered hy the 
■jiow iiir'j'iniii'j administration.''' In J;he same State paper he had before said, ' 
quoting approvingly frotn one of his own speeches, "I have no purpose directly 
or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it 
now exists;" and sidijoined. '■'■ Iheli eve 1 have no lavfal right to do so, and I 
Lave no inclination to do so," 

3. In Secretary Seward's famous letter to the minister of the United States, ' 
resident at Paris, designed as a diplomatic circular to the European courts, and 
Tvritteu ••' by direction of the President," occurs the following paragraph : 
"The condition of slavery in the several States v,'ill remain just the same, 
whether it ["the rebellion"] succeeds or fails. The rights of the States, and 
the condition of every human being in them, will remain subject to exactly the 
same laws and forms of administration, whether the revolution shall succeed or • 
or whether it shall fail. Their constitutions and laws and customs, habits and 
iaistitutions, in either case, will remain the same. It is hardly necessary to add 
to this incontestable statement the further fact that the new President, as well 
SiS the citizens throixgh whose suffrages he has come into the administration, has 
always repudiated all designs whatever, and v/herever imputed to him and them 
of disli' riling the st/stivi of slavery os it is existing under the Constitution and 
lairs. The case, however, would not be fully presented were I to omit to say that 
any such effort on his part would be uncojisfitnjional, and all his acts in that direc- 
tion would be prevented by the judicial authorities, even though they were as- 
sented to b}' Congress and the people." 

4. In his message to Congress of the (Uh of jMareh, 18(iL', known as his com- 
pensation message, after recommending to that body that they should pass a res- 
olution that the United States ought to co-operate with the States by means of 
pecuniary aid in effecting the grvidual abolishment of slavery, Mr. Ijincoln ex- 
pressly disavowed for the|K<overnineut any authority over the subject, except 
with State assent. • His language \,as that his proposition "sets up no claim «f 
a T:;-:ht by Federal authority to interfere with slavery v.'ithin State limits, refer- 



OBSERVATIONS LV THE NORTH. 95 

:ng, as it does, the absolute control of the subject in each case to the State 
and its people immediately interested/' 

5. The act of Congrrss of the 6th of August, 1801, emancipated unly the 
slaves of " rebels " erap'oycd in the " rebellion," and submitted the decision 
of such cases exclusively lo the courts. Major-Groneral Fremont, on the 30th 
of that month, he being then in command in Missouri, by proclamation declared 
free All the slaves within the State. This, as soon as it came to Mr. Lincoln's 
•inowledge, he disapproved, and declared it in- a formal order of 11th of Sep- 
:embcr, to be void as ffir as it transcended the provisions of the act of Cou- 
_^ress. And in a letter of Mr.' Joseph Holt to President Lincoln, of the 22d of 
ihc month, that person being alarmed for the effect of Fremont's order, states 
that " the act of Congress was believed to embody the conservative policy of 
your administration." This statement Mr. Lincoln never denied. 

0. On the 9th of May, 18G2, Major-Gcneral Hunter, military commander of 
the department of the South, embracing Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, 
jy au order of that datcsjfdeclared all slaves within such States free. On the 
lOth of the jnouth, even before he was officially advised of the measure, Mr. 
Lincoln, by proclamation, declared the same, *' whether genuine or false," to be 
''altogether void." In neither of these instances was there the slightest inti- 
mi^tion of a change of opinion by Mr. Lincoln, either on the question of policy 
or of power. As to bo^h, he then entertained the same opinion that he had an- 
nounced in his inaugural. 

7. On the 22d of July, 1SG2, Mr. Crittenden proposed, in the House of 
llepresentatives at \Yashington, a resolution which, after stating that the war 
was ''forced upon the country by the disunionists" of the Southern States, 
declared that it " is tiot waged on our p:irt in any spirit of oppression or for any 
purpose of conquest or subjugation, or purpose of overthrowing or mterferfing 
with the rights or the established institution of these States (the seceded), but 
to. defend and maintain the suprciuaey of the Constitution and the rights of the 
several States unliiipaired; and that as soon as these objects are accomplished 
the war ought to cease." In the House only two votes were cast rtgainst it. 
and in the Senate but one Republican vote, and it was at once and without hes- 
itation approved by the I'residcnt. No pretence was here suggested that slavery 
was to be abolished, or that any of the rights of the "States in regard to it were 
to be iuterferred with. 

Yet ib the face of all this accumulation of precedents, we find Einanripatlo'n 
proclamations put forward under the claim of executive power — the first on the 



96 OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

22(1 of Septeuibtr, l>i&2, and the second on the first day of the succeeding 
year. In the last, all slavery in certain States, or parts of States, were declared 
free; it mattered not whether the territory or the slaves should fall within the 
military oecupadou of the United States or not. Such has bee» the sequel of 
a hypocrisy which iiiurfb stand as a deception and outrage unparalleled in history. 
13ut it h;is been said that the emancipation proclamation was a militar)/ 
measure, aad to be justified as such from necessities outside of the (Constitution. 
It is difficult to find patience to reply to such nonsense. The plea is 'the most 
absurd stuff that was ever put in the mouth of fool or knave to brazeb out 
a2;ainst the good sense and conscience of the world his fraud and outrage. 
Absurd, because we know, and all the world knows, that it was at the dictation 
and under the inffuenee of a purely political party that the emancipation pro- 
clamation was Issued by M"r. Lincoln. Absurd, because we know, and have had 
recent assurance from Mr. Lincoln himself, that he does not intend emancipation 
of the negro to cud with the war, which it would do ijjso faclo if a mere mili- 
tary measure, but has made the abandonment or extirpation of slavery the 
preliminary condition for' peace, and thus, theiefore, a priiyiary object of the 
war, 

II. 

It is this same dogma of " military necessity," applied to the slavery ques- 
tion, that Mr. Lincoln has used to fasten upon the neeks of the white citizens 
of the North a yoke of intolerable despotism. It is only necessary to look upon 
what is every day passing before our eyes. 

We see this despotism in the unreasonable searches and seizures of persons 
and papers, in direct violation of the Constitution. 

We see it in arrests of obnoxious. individuals and their imprisonment without 
warrant or charges preferred, and in some instances cut off Iroiu all communi- 
cation with family, friends, or counsel. 

We see it in the suppression of newspapers and wanton arrest of editors. 

We see it in the assumption by the President of the power to regulate the 
right of suffrage in the States and establish minority and o.rUto'ToHc govern- 
ments under the pretext of guaranteeing repuhlicciu governments. 

These are not fancy sketches or the exaggerations of a narrative wl'itten with 
passion. We know that such things have occurred in Missouri, Indiana, West 
Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New York; and yet even to question their 
legality is deemed disloyal, and men who maintain their inherited freedom in 



OBSERVATIONS IX THE NORTH. 97 

doing so, are (lesiguatcd by scurrilous abuse and threiiteued with the penaltie:^ 
t)!' a despot's all-powerful displeasure. 

To compare the falsehoods and crimes of Mr. Lincoln's record with that rigour 
of mea,?urc* iu the Confederacy, which is really nothing more than the logical 
incident and the proper expression of resolute patriotism, is an outrage upon 
ihistory. The noble memorials of self-sacrificing patriotism are very difierent 
from the scarlet record of ruthless despotism. The former adorn the South : 
the latter is forever the conspicuous heritage of Yankee infamy. 



CnAPTEPt XV. 

Fp.ok New Yop.k to Fortrkss MoNRor.. — Two Days in Baltisiore. — A Bit of Koiuanoe. — 
Captain*" Puffer." — The Negro Settlement at Fortress Monroe. 

Uu the 2&tli of November, I received an order from the Navy Department in 
Yv'asihiugton, to report at Fortress Monroe, " with a vievr of being exchaaged." 
[left New York that day. I had gone to Creneral Dix's office to get transpor- 
tauou. It was with the greatest difficulty I could make my way through police 
men and ceremonies, even to the honour of an interview with the A.^sh'^fant 
ALijutant. There was a Cerberus even as far as the sidewalk: a very stifif po- 
liceman, who appeared to be a niilitary mongrel, and who very insolently told 
me that I could not enter even the precincts of General Dix's headquarters 
without acquainting him (the policeman) with my business. This being done, 
and undergoing successive meditation, with a guard and an usher, I was at last 
permitted to see the least dignitary at headquarters — the x\ssistant Adjutant — 
a little bag-trousered Yankee, with an air of immense importance. He knew 
nothing about the transportation of prisoners, or did not want to know anything 
about it; and thought as I was travelling for my own advantage, no matter 
whether under Government orders or not, I must pay my own expenses ! A 
pretty argument truly; but as it was no use to contend with impudence and, a 
fool's brains, [ yielded the point and took my departure. In ten hours I was 
in ]jaltimore. 



I spent two days in Baltimore. I could not deny myself that pleasure ; for 
I had many acquaintances and dear friends there. 

It was refreshing to find here a diiference of manners and dress, already bor- 
dering upon the quiet and simple tastes of the South. Not much of the glories 
of '' Shoddy " here ; no blazing ostentation and flippant affectations of vulgar 
wealth here; gentlemen plainly dressed, and ladies in decent, comfortable bon- 
nets, not with little hats perked on the head, a la milifuire, and swaggering a 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 99 

feather. The atmosphere oC Southern manners yet lingers :a Ealtimorc. But 
I was not to take my impressions from the surface, and I was anxious to learu 
something of the real spirit of this city, it having been so variously reported in 
Richmond. 

Between New York and I'altimore there is a vast difFerence in Yankee rule. 
In the former city there is, properly speaking, not much of a " secession party," 
although plenty of a mere " Copperhcadism," consulting p:'relv partisan ends, 
and not at all dangerous. Ilencc there is no necessity for any special proiivamnie 
of despotism there; but in lialtimore there is a real secession partv, and those 
who belong to it are kept in a partial couditian of subiugation. jJaltimore 
thrives, say the Xorthcrn papers ; it is overrun and clattering with Yankee trade ; 
but even in this gross prosperity the Southern sympathizer has no share. Ho 
is marked, he is degraded even in his business, all employment is closed to him, 
except such as he may choose to take as the subordinate or emplovee of the 
Yankee. All ."southern lueu in Baltimore have found a discrimination in all 
trades and employments against them, and many of them have been compelled 
to retire from business. They tell you that life has become purposeless and in- 
tolerable to them. T bey have given up their business ; they are pursued by 
spies ; they are dogged by men who pick up their slightest word ; they Hve in 
a constant atmosphere of suspicion. You look at these men aad ycu see a blank 
dejection in their faces, a sort of melancholy devil-may-care expression. You 

'never hear any eager or animated words from their lips; they have no appear- 
ance of interest in what they say ; they seem to have drifted past hope ; they 
look upon their future in blank dismay, or with the sullen indifference of men 

'who have no longer any object to accomplish or ambition to serve, and who hav(; 
converted life to a mere existence. And yet all this is but the faiatest shadow 
of -subjugation,'' as it is designed for those now without the pale of the 
Union. 

There is a striking difference between the men and women of Baltimore in 
their manifestations of Southern syuip.ithy. It is painful to iDotiee the careless 
manner and vacant air with which the first deliver their sentinients. ]>ut the 
women are very fierce and defiant, and talk vcliemontly about Yankee oppres- 
sion and their attachment to the South. I met a number of them, who learned 
■ that I was ou parole passing South, and were eager of the opportunity to send 
messages to th« ir kinsmen and friends within the limits of the Confederacy. 
There was grcit excitement at the time, in the upper quarter of Charles street, 
on account of the case of Mrs. Ilutchins, an estimable lady, v/ho had been 



100 OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

dragged Irorn her fauiily to a jail in Jlassachusctts, to be iinprisoiicd live years, 
for having purchased a sword to send through the blockade te a relative in the 
vSouthern army. A deputation of some of the first ladies of Baltimore had gone 
on to Washington to get Mrs. Lincoln's intercession in the matter. But the 
lady of the White House had declined to see them, and had sent word from her 
apartments that ''she could not see visitors^ as she had her feet in a mustard 
bath." 

It was said that Mrs. II. was required, in her captivity, to sew for Yankee 
soldiers. Others, in different prisons, were required to cook for them. " Oh, 
for such a chance," said one of the ladies W"hom I heard discussing these pen- 
alties of Yankee prisons, '' wouldn't I cook for them with a vengeance — wouldn't 
I grind a black bottle into their' soup !" 

I was asked a great deal about our Generals and rcilitary heroes. General 
Beauregard appears to be the ladies' favourite in the North, and especially so in 
Baltimore. But I may say hei-e that his reputation in this regard, or the repu- 
tation of any ('Onfederate officer in any r<;gard among Northern people, is noth- 
ing to compare with the unbounded admiration and respect in which General Lee 
is held by all parties in the .enemy's country. I have heard Abolitionists utter 
all sorts of anathemas against men and things in the Confederacy, with this 
single exception : that I have never heard ; t any time or in any company in the 
North the name of General Lee coupled with a word of hate or of derision. 



A few hours before T left Baltimore I received a hasty message from afriend, 
requesting me, by all means, to meet a^dy who was anxiously waiting to see 
me in the parlour at Barnum's hotel. I repaired at once to the interview. 
I was no sooner introduced to the lady by our mutual friend, than, with agitated 
and plaintive words, she said she had learned I was proceeding to Kichmond, 
and had come to entreat that I would make every endeavour to obtain the ex- 
change of a certain Texas Colonel, Mdio had been wounded at Gettysburg, had 
been- a prisoner all the long months since, and was still confined at Johnson's 
Island. At the conclusion of her elo<juent and passionate intercession, my 
friend playfully remarked that there was a bit of romance in the case. I had 
already guessed it. 

This lovely lady, of gentlest typo of beauty, living in a luxurious home in 
Baltimore, had left it to go to the terri])le field of < J ettysburg, to nurse the 
Confederate wounded left there. 8he did it faithfully; even the rudest of*t)ur 



OBSERVATIOXS IN THE NORTH. 101 

poor blood-stuineil aud dust-stained soldiers .sharing in lier gentlest luiaistrationb. 
Among those who came under her care was the colonel of a Texas regiment ; 
and then sympathy ripened into a more tender interest — and then it was the 
old, old story which I need not enlarged 

I rowed that I would make every endeavour to obtain the exchange and 
release of the officer. In fact, I resolved, if Col. Quid's ''red tape" made ifc 
necessary, to apply to whatever authority there was in the Confederate StaiOv^, 
capable of doing a knightly and generous act. 



I arrived at Fortress Monroe on the brightest morning I had ever seen ir. 
winter — that of the 1st of December. 18G4. I immediately reported to Col 
Tioberts, in command of the fort, vrho sent me to communicate in an adjoining 
casemate with one of Butler's staif officers, a sandy-haired youth who was still, 
in bed at nine o'clock in the morning. But Capt. Puffer (a veritable name, not 
a nomine de pjvmc, although I understood he was waf correspondent of the 
New York Times) was, I must admit, very polite and gentlemanly. He said ik 
would be necessary to communicate with General Butler, who was at the front; 
that, in the meantime, I might go on parole, but suggested that I should report 
my circumstances and status at the provost-marshal's office. Th^ provost-marshal 
gave me another pleasant surprise of politeness. He indicated where I would find 
the hotel, and asked me if I was furnished with funds to pay the expenses of 
my detention. I may add here that this officer, afterwards, entirely at his owa 
instance, refunded my hotel bill, and that I was, in all respects, treated by him 
with the consideration and civility due to a prisoner-of-war. 



There i.- a good deal to see about Fortress Monroe, aud I improved the com- 
parative liberty of my parole there in such observations as 1 could properly 
make under its obligations. 

One has an extraordinary opportunity here of testing the results of the 
Yankee dogma of negro emancipation and equalitj'. General Butler has the 
merit in Northern eyes of having taken more pains with the negro, and having 
recognized liis new status to a fuller extent than any other Yankee commaadcr. 
So that ob«;ervation of the condition of the freed negro in his departmeat i.-^ 



102 OBSERVATIONS IX THE NORTH. 

made under circumstances of the greatest advantage to tliose who advocate 
emancipation, and insist upon its success. 

Of the many thousand negroes, not soldiers, in the department of this General, 
the majority is concentrated immediately^ around Fortress Monroe. It is almost 
impossible to persuade them to remove to the North, as they have the strongest 
prejudice against a higher latitude, and cherish those local attachments. peculiar 
to the negro, deriving a vague satisfaction from the thought that they are still 
on the soil of the South. Many of them express the greatest desire to remain 
in Virginia "after the war is over." 

The point of land here is ulack ■with negroes. You see what one of Mr. 
Charles Reade's heroes describes as a ''mixcllaneous bilin' of darkies." You 
find the shivering old evones lining the beach with cake stands 3 negroes shuff- 
ling along the wharves hoping for somebody to give them a job; negroes thick 
as crows in the open lots around the fort; negroes poking their black heads 
through every open window for a mile around. 

I had an opportunity of making an excursion through the whole negro settle^ 
ment here I had i; . sooner got into the Ilygeia breakfast room than I was 
recognized by three or four black servants who had escaped from Richmond a 
few months ago, atil had found employment at the hotel. They expressed 
boundless deligkt to ^.e me; came up to shake hands; overwhelmed me with 
obsequious attention;:, and crowded my plate with every delicacy in the larder. 
There wfere two Yankee chaplains sitting opposite me in undisguised and whis- 
pering amazement at such a demonstration of Virginia negroes to a " Heb," as 
they had no doubt been taught to suppose that such a character, in coming in 
contact with disenthralled Africans, was much more' likely to have his throat 
cut than otherwise. All the negroes I have referred to had their budgets of 
experience to open to me. They were doing very well, a;? they were trained 
house servants; but •■ their people," "who hadn't larnt much," were doing very 
badly, and were "nrjiistrous sorry" that they had come over to " de free side." 

One meets here, lut only occasionally, a fungus of negro gentility that is 
very amusing. I v?ent out to the " Freedmen's Village " in a horse car. 
Seated opposite to me in the car was a fat-lipped mulatto woman, who bad won- 
derful airs and graeei. She languished; ogled one or two Yankee officers on 
the platform; was indignant because "dat man" (the white conductor) wanted 
to charge her extra for a band box, which she had placed beside her. I dis- 
covered from her conversation that she was employed as a sempstress in General 
Butler's family, and lad just been out on a shopping excursion for herself 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. IQo 

■Lhrougli tlic stores on the wharf. "Sicli mixed places/' she said, addressing 
"with a very patronizing air a coloured female, who was a shade darker, '' dey 
£.ia't nice or 'spectable a bit; I gwinc do my shoppiu' iu Baltimore next time/" 
The '• ginger-bread " female obsequiously wished to know if G eneral Butler wa;- 
made " Secerrerry of War," if her friend would deiga to follow in his suite to 
Washington. "Oh, dear, no," was the reply; " can't leave dc fort ; and dca 
you know — ha, ha, ha! — dese officers is sich sinners." 

At the Freedmcn's ^'ilIage, and all along the road to it, there were invariable 
houses of scantling crowded with black people. I found several barracoon? 
reeking wiih squalour, and with clusters of naked bodies of little Black negroe.< 
hanging in the windows. Those wretched homes were stuffed with the meaner 
'.lass of blacks, the poor "scrubs," who have no qualifications for sempstresses, 
"barbers or waiters, and such " genteel " employments, and are content to pas.-- 
their lives in animal riot and laziness, as long as the Yankee Government feeds 
them. What will they do after that? God only knows. Some of the more 
r.dventurous had built up quite a little outer town of " pie and cake " estab- 
lishments — "pies and cakes" — nothing else, their enterprise had not got beyond 
that. There arc hundreds of these establishments within a mile of Fortress 
^lonroe. 3Iany of these must have been open all day without taking in a copper. 
It was a melancholy pretence of doing something — those poor creatures sitting 
behind rows of stale and shrivelled pies, and waiting ior impossible customers. 

Alas ! what must the future have in reserve for these wretched and helpless 
people-! Some of them have already a dim daw»ing in their minds of the fate 
that awaits them. One notices that they are amused for a time by the surprise 
of freedom and the new scenes into which they arc introduced ; that they run 
after the drums and glitter of the Yankee soldiers ; that, like children, they are 
excited and pleased by new spectacles, which arc suddenly presented to them. 
But they soon relapse into blank helplessness. 



. CHAPTER XYl. 

A Day with General Butler. — The Civilization and Poetry of tlie " Saaitarj Coajmli- 
sioa" — General Butler's Pliilos.tpliy and "Little Stories." 

%. . . . 

^'^ ithin thirty-six liour:^' after reporting at Fortress Monroe a dispatch was 

received from Cleneral Butler, dated "Before Bichmond," summoning nrc to Mb 
lieaaquarters. I went up the river without any guard, being on parole. I bad 
iiiot passed up the James before for many years, and with melancholy interests 
istanding on the decks of the *' Biver Queen," my eye traced along the banks 
the ravages 'of war. On the lower part of the river there were shrivelled spots 
on the bluffs where houses had formerly stood and where the destroyer had dooe 
Lis work; now nothing to be seen but naked chimneys pointing upward iato 
the pale winter sky. I could see no signs of human habitations — nothing but 
here and there souie sr|ualid encarapmcnt.s peering over the banks, and soiled 
toiits rocking in the wiutcvs' wind. 

A gaunt man in a swaggy suit of black — a member of the " Array Sanitary 
Commission " — seemed very much inclined to enter into conversation with me 
He had not the least idea he was talking to a "rebel"; he evidently imagined 
rue to be an Englishman, judging my nationality, perhaps, from a round hat and 
red whiskers. I asked him what kind of people had formerly lived on the 
banks of the river. He proceeded to describe them, as he thought, for the 
benefit of a foreigner: very uncivilized; A'^andals in agriculture, who wore out 
thousand acres of land to make as much in the wa}^ of profit as a Yankee could 
raise on a ten-acre fiirm ; men who had been " raised with niggers " and weto 
dirty " slouching" creatures, who had now made way for the pioneers of Yankee 
civilization. "Ah," he said, "you ought to see the banks of the Hudson by 
the side of this puddle. There's American civilization for you. Mister." 

We were detained at City Point, which place I could hardly recognize. It 
looks so much like the wharves of New York, the river so choked with shipping, 
and the shore so covered with storehouses, that one might imagine himself here 
oa the threshold of a great metropolis. I had to sleep on a hard bench on board 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 105 

the boat. A wretched night ! Soldiers over my hca.d singing camp songs and 
all. sorts of dirty scraps of blackguard and blasphemy, alternated with senti- 
mental ditties, fu'-nished them by the Sanitary Commission ! Thin^ of a 
Yankee '■ scab," reeking with filth, a " bounty -jumper," perhaps, trolling out the 
verse which the sentimental writer of camp songs puts in the mou^h of "the 
dying soldier " — 

" goon with Angels I'll be morching — 
A crown of glory on my brow ! " 

The next mornin>:;, j;hat of the od of December, dawned brightly through the 
forests of mast^ and mesh of transports into which the *'Eivcr Queen" had 
inserted herself; awl as the sun rose, we were moving up to Bermuda Hundred. 
Arrived there, I sought out the quartermaster's office, and was furnisbed with 
transportation in a comfortable ambulance to Gen. Butler's headquarters, about 
seven miles distant. 

The road was not very good; but I had a charming fide in the bracing morn- 
ing air, through a pretty forest of second growth of piner and oak. Before 
crossing the river on the pontoons the road ascends a table land on the south 
side, from which was spread out a lovely and picturesque scene in the hazy 
morning air, that alike ravished the senses and inspired the most vivid emotions . 
of the heart. The high land stands in a bend of the James, thickly thronged 
with transports, tugs, men-of-war, with here and there a gloomy monitor ; while 
above the banks floated the beautiful tri-color of the French frigate Adonis, a 
visitor to this* scene of war. Stretching across the laadscapes, were the pic- 
turesque dioramas of a great army : tents gleaming in the woods } long lines of 
•rhitc'covered wagons toiling across thebr»wn fields ; horsemen flying hither and 
thither; human figures dotting the pontoon bridge ; and now and then the train 
of some general's stafi', in lustrous uniform, .wending its way along the edges of 
the forest. I passed a file of nine or ten men with wounded arms or bandaged 
faces. '• Them," said th-e driver of the ambulance, "ie some of our boys what 
was in the fight last night with the rcbs." 

I reached (Jen. Butler's headquarters about nine in the morning— a common" 
frame building, probably an overseer's house, on the Aiken farm, flanked by 
rows of neatly constructed log cabins with brick chimneys and glass windows. 
I found at the door of the General's ([uarters two orderlies, one of whom required 
me to send in my -'card" for the audience I solicited. Not being provided 
wi*h the preliminary pasteboard,.! substituted a dirty scrap of paper,- and 
patiently awaited the GcneraVs pleasure to see me. 
8 



IQ^ OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

I had to wait several hours. At" last the orderly called my uamc > and ■with. 
a sudden effort I strung up my nerves for an interview with the man whom \ 
had bet^n accustomed to regard as the Raw-IIcad-andfBIoody-Bones of the war. 
After all, a surprL-ae awaited me much greater thau anything 1 could imagine. 
I had expected a storm of wrath to be exploded upon my head, without even 
the ceremony of salutation. Imagine my f-urpriae when <jreneral Butk-r rjsc, 
saying very jpleasantly, " Take a seat, Mr. P.," and thcfU offering me a fragrant 
Havana, asking me " if I would not take what he could recommend as a very 
good cigar ! " I excused myself from smoking, on the ground of " nervee." 
"Perhaps you would like to look over the llichmond morning papers ; here they 
are, all five of them," said the General, sweeping a pile of jiewspapers towards, 
me. "Ah, the Examiner is' not there; that Gov. Bradford, wlio was just in to* 
see me, would have." 

The face of General Butkr is fimiliar to the public in innumerable engrav- 
ings, wood-cuts and photograjihs. But his large head and bust give one the 
.idea of a bulky and unwieldy figure. Ou the contrary, he has a compact figure 
and a French quickness in his movements; he is short and- well put up. Hits 
head is peaked with a forehead that slants rapidly, but just over his eyes shows 
a remarkable development of what phrenologists call " the organs of percep- 
tion." ■ He has small, muddy, cruel eyes; and there is a smothered glower iii 
them, curtained in one of them by a drgopiitg lid, which is very unplcasaRt. 
The other of his features are almost covered up in enormous cliops, with littlc 
webs of red veins in themi. But the expression of the face is by no means 
sluggish. He talks with a perpetual motion of his features, and has the 
Johnsonian pufi'.iu his conversation. When he essays to be pleasant he smile?; > 
but as he performs this operation ou one side of the mouth, und shows by it 
some bad projecting teetli, Ihc effect is not re-assuring 

After 'giving me time to make a cursory examination of the newspaper:-. 
General Butler opened •the .subject of my exchange. He said he was quiitc 
willing to send me through his lines to effect my exchange for ]\Ir. liichardaoo, 
an attache of the New York Tribune, or whatever other equivalent was available; 
but in view of certain military movements on foot, it would not be prudent f o 
do so at that time, and he would require me to remain inside of Portress Mou- 
roCj until a proper opportunity to send me to Eichmond should occur. He was 
polite enough to say that pei-sonally he was quite sure that I would honorably 
observe the conditions of my parole and give no improper information in Ricb- 
•mOEd with respect to what I might loam in passing through his lines; but he 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTE. 1Q7 

had to act iu the matter with a view to his official responsibility, and under 
Tules of military conduct which he could not dispense with. Of course nothing 
- was left for nic but to submit to the delay with as good a grace as possible. 
.Some officers being announced, General Butler requested me to withdraw, 
adding that he would see me again 

- I had remained outside. G uneral Butler's quarters for som.c time, when a black 
servant obsequiously approached me with "the General's compliments, and 
would I, please, step in." Entering the room I found a table neatly laid for 
dinner, with silver service and snow-white napkins garnishing two plates. 
'Mr. P.," said the General, "you will get no dinner unless you take some with 
me."' If I had not been struck dumb by the invitation I would have answered 
him with more politeness. Tlie General did the honours very graciously, and 
the bill of fare quite upset my notions of the diet of heroes : soup, roast beef 
and potatoes, apple sauce and other condiments, apple pie, cheese, almonds, and 
English walnuts. The table was attended by two negro waiters, whose appear- 
ance of cringing obsequiousness surpassed anything I had ever seen of such 
behaviour in the presence of a Southern master, and reminded one of the 
nervous awe which one might suppose the attendants and slaves of a potentate 
of the Orient might show in the august presence. I remember one of the ne- 
groes attempting- to extricate for the General a cruet that had hung in the silver 
castor; and it was painful to see how his hands fluttered in the task. 

After the cloth was removt-i, (I may renaark parenthetically, there was "noth- 
ing to drink "), and the bhick servants had v.'alked out on the tips of their toes, 
General Butler lit his llavanua, and launcaod into a long and eutertainin"-, talk. 
I must do him the justice to say that in this conversation he did not apply a 
sinL.4o improper question to me, or, by the least allusion, offend th-e delicacy of 
my position as a prisoner. He did say, v/ith an after-diuuer yawn, "I wonder 
when this ' cruel war ' will be over '/" I ventured to reply.that its termination 
was a wish common to both side-;, and that I thought "it would be ^nded before 
very long." He must have discovered some implication in my reply, for he re- 
plied very fiercely, " I think so, sir ; I think so, sir ;" — and here military mat- 
ters dropped. 

General Butler talked freely of his own acts. He said that he had been much 
abused for two acts in New Orlean.s — the hanging of Mumford and the so-called 
" woman order." He had, as all men, some things to regret in his life.; but 
these acts he could never regret; he hoped that when time had composed the 
passions of this war, justice would be done him, and that some of those who 



J08 OBSERVATIONS XS THE NORTH. 

Uad abused him fur }ii< rule in New Orleans would fiud occasiuu to revise their > 
judgments. 

He said that wheu Mumford took the flag from the United States mint, he 
aarrowly escaped drawing upon the city the five of thp fleet ; and it was with 
great diffieulty that the crews were restrained by their officers. The gunners 
oa the Hartford had hold of the lanyards the moment they .saw the flag tf.ken 
down. He regretted the necessity of hanging Mumford. He (General B.) had 
received at least a hundred letters threatening his life if he dared to execute 
riQntence upon Mumford ; and when his life was bogged by a very respectable 
C'tizen, but a few moments before he was taken to the gallows, he (Greneral B.) 
replied that " in one hour it was to be decided whether he was to govern ia 
Kew Orleans or not" — and he decided it by keeping the word he had first pra- 
Qounced, and hanging Mumford. 

As to the <' woman-order," when Lord Palmerstou denounced it, he might, 
if he had turned to the Ordinances of London, found that General Butler had 
borrowed it from that ancient and respectable authority. The " ladies " of 
New Orleans did not interfere with his troops ; it was the demi-monde that 
troubled him. One of this class had spat in an officer's face. Another had 
planted herself vis-a-vis to an officer in the street, exclaiming, ^' La, here is a 
Yankee; don't he look like a monkey!" It became necessary to adopt an order 
that " would execute itself," and have these women ft-eated as street-walkers. 
" How do you treat a street -walker," said General Butler; '-'you don't hug and 
kiss her in the street :" I professed ignorance. The General explained tha*' 
he meant only that these women were to be treated with those signs of contempt 
and contumely usually bestowed upon street- walkers, so as to make them ashamed 
of tliemsclves; sind it was tb.iis the order "osecuted itself"" 

^ I must not forget tlfat, while on the safeject of his nils in New Orleans, General Butler tokl 
me that there were some instances in which be did not require citizens to take the oath of alle- 
giance, but was satislicd to accept their simple pledges of personal honour not to interfere with 
(he authority he had established there. "But in such cases," he said, "Ihadto know my 
man; he had to be a man of undoubted perL^onal honour with whom I'thus dealt." He men- 
tioned the case of a distinguished physician in New Orleans', who had said to him : "I cannot 
take j'our oath of allegiance ; I would violate myconscien'-e and aft'ections to do so; it would bo 
an act of perjury on my part, and one of deception townrds you ; yet I will pledge you my 
honour not to interfere with your authority, and, while it exist.s here, to employ myself only in 
my private concerns." "I admired his candour," said General Butler, "and did not insist 
upon any oath whatever." — Now whether this was a real occurrcn'je or not, there is a lesson 
ia it. 



OBSERVATION'^ IN THE NORTH. 100 

The General remarked that he had fed upwards ot thirty thousand poor peo- 
pie in New Orleans. J replied, " I had no idea the hounty of his Government 
had been so (Extensive." '• There was not a bit of hoimtij in it, sir," said the 
General laughing; "I taxed the people of Xcw Orleans to reimburse every cenb 
of it to the Government." 

(N. B. — f did- not think it necessary to siay to the General that contributions 
of this sort was simply Jj/rariamsin.') 

The General said he had been doing the same thing in Norfolk and Ports- 
mouth — feeding the poor. He scut his orderly for a copy of a newspaper — 
'•The New Regime" — to show me the report of his Commissioners of the Poor 
in the two cities; by which it appeared that <(Overnment supplies had been iy- 
sued to more than three thousand persons. 

(N. B: — Done after the fashion of the New Orleans Agrarianism.) 

Referring to affairs in Norfolk, I asked the General if he had ever come in 
contact there with an old acquaintance of mine whom I named. '' No, sir," he 
replied ; *' but your question reminds mo of ' a little story.' A professor of ono 
,of our college,* was at a dinner party, when one of tlie gentlemen present askfct 
how his son was getting along at college. The professor replied he was nco 
aware he had a son in the college. The parental prido was of course a little 
wounded at this ignoring of his Young Hopeful. * You mu^n't be concerne<]/ 



I am fully per.^uaneil that it is the conr3e of candour, .volf-respect an-l dignity that obUsEii 
even from suoh an t-neray a-i the Yankee, a better treatment than any acts of self-abasemeD'. 
The men who do the.=e lapl are ground into the dust. Those who easily take the oath of alle- 
giance purchase it by infamy, susjiicion and sur\c!llance. This has been my invariable obae?- 
vation in the North. A Yankee officer at Fortress Monroe told nie that he «id not believe " ,i 
Southern utntlrmtm ever took the oiith of allegiance." This oaih i» s livery of dishonoji" 
with which the Y'ankee attempts a war.ton debasement of his victino. Ir ha? no other valao Jn 
his eyes. It eau never obtain that consideration from the enemy whioli candid manners anc' 
erect dignity, and the proud assertion of one's personal henour. never fall w win even from the 
meanest of m.inkind. 

One of tho worst Abolition editors in Xcw York asked a frietii of mine, if I could not bs 
persuaded to take Uie oath of allogiiiaeo. My friend replied th.<j,t, "he would answer with 
his and my life that T would never Ihu; debase myself." "Well," said thl'? blackest of BlacK 
Republican editors, "he is right; he couldn't uo \l without & eoE'.rfeilLction of himself, m 
which nobody would believe." ^ 

Let the man who has the oath of allegiance pressed upon him, simply ie.'y it. The desigrv 
of the oath is to terure nothing; it is luerclj' to put a mark of dishononr upon him; it Ju 
wanton : ancK like all wanton inflictions, it is beUcr.Tcpclled by the spirit that defies, then 
by that which cringe? and entreat;-. 



IIQ OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

;jaid the profcsfcoi', ' that I doa'tknow your son ; you may conclude he is getting 
•long yery well, for if he were a bad boy, I would certainly have made hie 
acquaintance." 

The General followed up his little story by an amusing account of an inter- 
vieAV he h-ad had with a certain gentleman ef Ilichmond — one of the ''^ Virginia 
Reserves " — who had strayed into his lines. I must confess his laughter was a 
little contagious as he gave tbe details of the interview. The unfortunate indi- 
vidual had come into his lines by some mistake, bewildered as to the points of 
the compass. Ilia appearance wa.s rather uumilitary, as General B. dcKcribed 
it ; a suit of black, wet and glued to kis skin, a stoye-pipe hat, and what seems 
to have attracted mo.st attention at headquarters, as a curiosity of Richmond — 
"a bla»'k satin vest." "Who are you?" thundered General Butler. "Sir," 
§aid the unfortunate individual, with the air of importance in misery, " I am 
one of the Virginia Reserves. " "Alluding only to the oddity of his appear-^ 
r*nce," said General Butler, I remarked: "and how many more are there like 
Tou, Mr. M — 7- ?" " I will answer all proper questions," replied the unfor- 
tnuate individual ; " but, sir, General Butler, do not expect me to inform you as 
to nv.r iiulUari/ y<;:cyrr<:x .'" Tlie General seeini to have thought the old gentle- 
suan a little stiHod, and explained to ine that ho only wanted to have a little fun 
oiit of him. So, with what I can imagine to have been the growl of an ogre, 

lie remarked : " Ah, ha, Mr M — ■, — ; bO, so, Mr. M ;. we have another namo 

than that of soldiers for persons in yciir drci.s ; je«, sir, another name : we call 
them sriES !" At the mention of this dreadful word, the unfortunate proprie- 
tor of the satin vest went off iofo protcot — pledging " his honour," " his sacred 
honour," "his honour, whick no man, General Butler, had ever doubted;" that 
he was " a soldier." 

I could not help thinking, dt-spite 'iku' ludicrous in this interview, the r©pre- 
fi-entative of the Richmond soeund class " uielish " hud shown the spirit of a 
^ntleman in hiy replies, and that, oven if his dignity was overdone, his sense of 
ls-<;«uour was apparent through it all. 

In tke coursic of conversation, General Butler took occasion — which I believe 
lie seldom omits — to eouiplimcat President Bavi.-. He said, " 1 hitve a grfiat 
ireepect for his ability — a very great respect, sir" — tapping kis forehead with hi? 
finger. "I voted for hirn in the Charleston Convention, you know; and I thick 
iic haa made poor return for old times i« calling me ' a Beast.' " 

He hoped thiat Mr. l>;ivis would carry out the policy of arraing <»lie fclares on 
Vii side. He (Butler) had several ihousaad " black boys " in his army — \xQ 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. ' m 

vrould uut sa)- Iiow many — and he would like them to come in contaet with black 
»oIdiers on the other side. He would be glad to try the espeiiment. He , 
t.houi:;ht that if rresident Daviy realty entertained the idea of using the negroes 
:i3 soldiers, he :-hould have put it into effect as a nuliUiry measure, instead of 
t.rustuag to the legislation of Congress. The North would never have armed 
the negroes if it had been left to the Congress at Washington; but the military 
lo^ulcrs took the initiative, and Congress had to follow. 

The General said he had in his military department sixty thousand negroes 
:^bsolvcd from t>hc'ir condition as slaves. I asked if the negro men who escaped 
into his lines gtMierally enlisted. " Vcrygcncrally," he replied. " They do sd 
♦br two reasons. It improves their social status. And then the soldier's life is 
attractive to the pegro; for though there are in it some hours, and, perhaps, 
days of trcuicndou.s exertion, yet there is plenty of stagnant leisure in which 
the negro indulges his disposition to laziness." 

•" To think," said the ^General, assuming a meditative air, and directing his 
.^^ize, nua s^quU ocv.li<, td the ceiling, " how history repeats itself. Jn San Do- 
~;iingo we had ectch party evetitually arming the negro on their respectiye sides, 
?^nd (inal'y th«; negroes driving the white men out, and taking the country for 
ihemselves. But it is scarcely possible the sequel can be rcJiervcd for us." 

The subject wa^ dropped, as the orderly announced a colonel in waitings, I • 
rose to go. *' Never miyd," said General Butler ; it's only a visit of ceremony." ' 
After a brusque salutation, General B. asks, " how is your regiment, Coloiel T* 
"Flourishing, sir,'^ responded that officer; "but I must tell yon, Genera!, I 
):ave some ofBcers in my command who are wholly unfit for their positions." 
"* Report 'em to me, sir," said the General; "report 'em to me, and I'll hare 
them.cxamincd at once. But you must remember one thing, Colonel: if there 
h good material Jn any of them, you must be patient with them ; but*"if there 
;ire ony crooked branches that you can't get a straight staS" out •!', I will soon 
dispo'ie of thera. sir." 

After the wlthurjwal of the Colonel, the General called one of hia aides, and 
recommended him to take care of me during my necessary detention at head- 
quarters. I must acknowledge that to this officer — Lt. De Kay — I am indebte<i 
fbr much kindm^sci. and a delicacy of manner T had hardly expected. During 
fhe two days I was detained at (Jcncral Butler's headquarters, thera were ser- 
•:ral occasions on which Lt. De Kay conversed with me p(^Iitely on many indif- 
•f-rcnt topics, but never once ou military matters. I recol^ci bat one point of. 
'^'Vmp.-'.rison he ever made between the beligerents ; and it waa that "in Rich- 



JI2 OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

mond there Wcia one thing better than they ha(J in the North^ and that was Zar- 
voma smoking tobacco." 

I returned to Fortress Monroe — vharc 1 liffle hntvi loTio.t, a>-aif>:d me! As 
the boat passed City Point a man was pointed out on the wharf. He was in 
plain milit£iry dre.ss, was round-shouldered, had his arms swung behind him, 
and was moving about in a very careless and unsoldierlike gait. I was toll it 
was General Grant. I was not near enough to observe his features. 

.... In what I have written above of General Butler's manner and his self- 
defences — with simple severity of justice — the reader may conclude with'mc 
that, like hie popular prototype, he is not as black as he is painted. It is not 
too much to ^ay that he is scarcely worse than other Yankee Generals, and infi- 
nitely better than many of them. Compare his career, in which individual out- 
rages stand out, and in which there is much that is merely passionate, and, per- 
haps, more of fume and bluster than actual performance with the systematic cru- 
elties and cold snakbh hypocrisy of Sherman, and we must admit that the sen- 
tence of outlawry which President Davis has visited upon the former, is at least 
invidious. But after all, that senteuceof outlawry was hrufum fuhnni intended 
merely to play a part in our President's elaborate melodrama of retaliation — a 
mere pretence to turn just popular indignation into the channel of gloomy ab- 
straetioBS and sentimental vapours. 



. CHAPTER XVII. 

On Pakolk i'j rci'.THESs MoxROE — A lleeollection of General Fitz Lee — A EiUcr I>i£s.p- 
pointment — Letter I'roiu a Catholic Mother : Jn J/cmoriiun. 

I returned w Fortress ^Sfonroe, and' reported there to Captain I'uficr, of Gen- 
eral Butler*6 staff, who enlarged me on parole to tbe. limits of the fort. I W£S 
assigned to a scantily furnished, but quite tolerable room ; was allowed to hire 
the attendance of a servant; and thus, in circumstances, certainly not physi- 
cally uDL'omfortttblc, was left to await, with what patience I could command. 
General Butler's convenience to send me through his lines, on an obligation of 
honour to make my own exchange in Richmond. 

I was ta'cated very kindly by the officers in Fortress Monroe. Many of the 
men looked black enough at me, and sometimes as I passed a group of soldiers 
they would strike up their popular army air, " Rally Round the Flag," singing, 
I thougiit, with peculiar gust© the line— • 

" Down with the traitors and up with the flag I" 

But this amused me. In no in.stance was I treated by any of the army officei-s 
I met in Fortress Monroe, either insolently or indelicately. One of the officers 
in the fort, on a certain occasien, 'invited me into his quarters, gave me an ex- 
cellent supper, aud offered me a bed in his«casematc. lie was not a ^'Copper- 
head;" he never once discussed the'warinhis conversation; he showed the 
spirit and sense of a gentleman Ile^said that, for himself, he had always de- 
termined to treat prisoners of war with all the kindness in his power, since an 
evidence he had had that such conduct was fully appreciated and repaid ia the 
South. 

He then told me that when General Fitzhugh Lee was a prieener in this fort, 
the officers had treated him with great kindness, for which he expressed his 
gratitude. Some time after, one of these officers, who had gone to the field, 
was taken prisoner and conveyed to the Libby. General Lee heard of it, went 



114 OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. • • 

to the prison, had him uncoaditiouaHy relea.scd, and offered to supply him with 
any money he might need for his ncccvssities. It is pleasant, indeed, to notice 
some passages of kind deeds, souse mutual recognitions of noble and humane 
•ourtesies in this dark and horrible war. 



I see from the newspapers that Gc'aeral Eutler has.gone to Wilmington, and 
I haye heard nothing of mj promised exchange. I have had a curi'om intima- 
tion that I am not to be excIiaiigcJ, and that another fate i.^ reserved for uie ! 
What does it juean ! I liave been turned over by Captain Puffer to Major 
Oasselljthe provost marshal; and he cannot or ^rill tell me nothing, although he i-s 
not surly or unpleasant when I ppcak to hinj. My disappointment is painful and 
gloomy eflough ; it treads so closely upon mj- dearest hopes; it means whateTer 
T may choose to imagine in the way of horrour, as there is no limit to ■whatever 
'•lisposition the Yankee authoriti9v« may choose to make of a prisoner. Once 
■within a few miles of riichmond, ftlmoyt in sight of its spires, I Siad myself 
turned back, not, as it would now appear, to endure a brief delay, hut prol>ably 
tigain to vp, over a long, dreary course of n prisoner's trials — a prisoner's disap- 
pointments. 



I have received some melancholy tidings, sadly associated -with a Ham© that 
has become ever precious iu mj prison memories. A letter from as excellent 
Catholic friend lies before me, ti;lliiig me of a sore affliction in the fannly of 
that gentle Boston lady, whose name there is scarcely a prisoner in Fort Wai- 
ren can apesk without the grateful effusisn of his heart. He writes : 

" Your dear {Vii'tid in Boston wrofci me rt loveljf toucliins letter the atlier day, whi^A I wl&h 
yo'.i could 3ee. Kbe announceg to me the dcaih ot oa.? of her daughters, «f typhoid fever, a few 
w«ek8 8go— not the iovoly <jirl, with tbe *oft bn^'a eyea, who vieited you !aat swtaiaer, but th» 
younger sister. The account eho gives me of the dying hours of this dear girl are so tauehing 
that I aould notrefraia from tears, &i. I read the beautiful story. She di«d in deliriuta, imagiji- 
ing herself aieoDg the Acgek, and chanting with har dying breath the gbrioua aatbemuof her 
Chureh. The mother is a saint in this lower world — such angelio resignation, snob ohild-Uka 
s-abmission, SKch glorified aequieeceHce to the blow, which has smitten her to the itisi, is a lee- 
/v»a for all wiio nn>arn." 

A«d this beiTaved mother, •».!} the midst of her affliction, hearing of aiy pro- 
longed detcnsioa as a prisoner, Ls, able to write, for horaelf, to me words af con- 



- OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 115 

elation and encouragement, and to take into ter grief the paltry dorrows of a 
friend. " I boar," she writes, *' your burdens with my own. lu doing battle 
with my own grief, I do not forget yours. But for our deep-lying trust in God's 
infinite love and mercy, bow could wo bear our trials. To luc the perpetual 
missing of a bright and beautiful presence — the yearning for that which has 
gone forever — would be unendurable, but that my whole being believes in the 
inftillibility of His love, who has smitten mo. Let us both, dear, suffering friend, 
look our sorrows in the face, and make of them angels to guide and guard us. 
1 have asked my darling, who was so deeply interested in 3'ou, and who is now 
an angel in Heaven, to pray for you, where prayers are efficaciou?.. . . . There 
stands near me a mo.st beautiful and touching engraving from Albert Duree, of 
the Crucifixion — a gift from a volued and dear friend. Look at it with me, my 
ftufiering brother ! Listen to the volee so full of pathos, that utters the "Father 
forgive them." Catch upon your aching heart the wail of the blessed Mother, 
" Oh, all ye that pass by the way, attend and see if there is any sorrow like unto 
Tiiy sorrow.' Behold — '^ s'ahat Jiifa rructm J"m mater f/i'*." Before thl? 

- blessed symbol of eternal love, I will daily kneel and pray for you, my friend, 
that by the Cross and Passion of the Crucified you may be delivered.". . , . 

A deep sham*^ mingles with my sympathy in reading therfe linos — shame for 
ujyself that 1 should be so weak in my own sorrows — do slight in comparisoa 
with those of that dearast of friends, who can write such a commentary of sub- 
wission on her own great affliction. May Cod forgive me, and arm me for all 
lutu.-e time, th:>,t in its trials I may have no more words- of weak and cowardlj 
complaint, but strength to suffer all things in his Providence ! To the afflicted 

■mother, wlio has been truly a mother to me, and who v/ut wont to call all my 
(Jo'untrymeu, who were prisoners, "her children;*' to her, the Beautiful, who 
now liveth among tlie saints in Heaven, my heart rhall ever turn for refreshing 
draughts of grateful memory and hcily thought, to cheer me on whatever re- 
maiiss of ^^ w^cary course of life. 

'^ IX MEMORIAM. 

Had eaith no charnis for thee, 
'fijt thon, sweet soaK .^hauldet tako the dusty way? 
l>'d love not light thy ati ps with ocastant raj. 

From tend'rest infancy '! 

Could.'?* than ii<» beauty see, 
Kut euth ft! aoi'U'd thy pareet maiden droams? 
iill, forco*, Held,, aad day'e revelving beaaie, — 

\Tere th»«o net f»ir to thee * 



116 OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTE, , 

Or did thy spirit crave 
Those other fields, where flowers forever blow, — 
That many-mansion'd house, who=e gate, we know. 

Is narrow'd to the grave 'I 

Were there not hearts whose gore, 
Tor thee, would trickle t« the laet faint beat ? 
And bands to scatter flowers about thy feet, 

Along life's rugged shore ? 

Hadst thou no lot below ? 
No chord responsive to earth's varied song? 
No kindred feeling with the gath'ring throng 

That crowd the courts of woo ? 

There's joy — high, holy joy 
)vo served for those who labour and bel eve,~ 
Ear cannot hear, eye see, man's heart conceive, 

Nor envious death destroy! 

Such now is thine ! Then why 
Should eouibre grief sit brooding on the soul. 
And all tbe waves of sorrow o'er ua roll ? 

For thee, 'twas gain to die! 

Oh yes! for thee, 'twas gain: 
'Twas bliss for thee to feel the fatal dart ! 
"lis we alone who press the wounded heart, 

And mourn the cureless pain. 

And eartk for thee had charms,' 
And liowers of joy and beauty ever new ; 
^ And constant love stood by thee, pure and trui-;, 

To fold the© in her arms. 

JPor these thy soul did glow. 
And forward glance, with youth's aspiring ga^'e, 
To eweet home scenes, calm joys, and length of feBV"— 

All worth and love bestow. 

And thou wort fair and young. 
And bore from time no wrinkle or decay; 
Bat cast thy robes aside, and took thy way. 

To dwell the saints among ! 

Whilst yet theu tarried here. 
The World had one great joy for ua who weep; 
Now thou art passed beyond the sapphire deep, ' 

'Tis Heaven alone wdcar! 



CHAPTER XVIIT. 

Closb ABO SoLiTAr.v Co^i'iNHMEST.— Life in a Gu;»rd-Box — Memora'jls Sai'.^nn^;! — A 
Ciltrnpse of ilop-j. 

I was not lell lon^r to imagine the cause of ray detention at Fortress Slonroe, 
and the nature of the fate in reserve for me which it implied.. Two or three 
days after I had noticed in the newspapers General Butler's departure down 
the coast, the provoat-marshal came into my room. His air was embarrassed ; 
and when he commenced conversation by saying that *• the oiScc of provost- 
marshal was a peculiar one, and that he had sometimes to do unpleasant things/' 
I was prepared for his next remark that he had "bad news" forme; There 
wt3 a sharp fear at work iu my heart — one of those moments of keen anxiety 
when a few words arc to determine the fate of a man — as I answered wilh a 
constrained calmness that wrung my nerves, that I appreciated his kind and 
polite word;:-, but knowing very well that he was bound to execute his oMers, I 
was ready to accept my fate whatever it was. He stated that I was sentenced 
to close and soUtar)/ confinement ; and that he had been so instructed by a tel- 
egraphic despatch from General Grant! And this tlien v/as the issue of all 
my hopes; this the trap into which I had been taken ; this the monstrous vio- 
lation of the faith of the Waihington Government; for T had come to Fortress 
Monroe under the protection of a parole, which Secretary "Welles had never re- 
scinded, and v.-hich I certainly had never compromised, and under the protec- 
tion, too, of a sjiccial official order of the same Secretary, directing me to go 
forward " to be exchanged." What could such perfidy and cruelty mean ? T 
could not easily attfibutc it to Secretary Welles, after his former honourable 
treatment of mc ; I could still less imagine it to have proceeded from General 
Hutler, who h-id so recently and so distinctly, promised to send me through his 
lines. Htid any charges been made against me '/ What had G eneral Grant, 
who was in no way connected with the exchange of prisoners, to do with me '( 
Major Cassell, the provost marshal, could tell me nothing but what was in the 
text of his ordcra. 



11^ ' . OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

This officer had been very gentlemanly to me on all occasions, lie was kind 
in his manner now ; but it was useless to waste questions on blank politcnesff. 
I asked him if he could spare me the ignominy of a cell, and he t-uggcsted that 
I might be confined in a guard-bos, near the sally-port. If I had chosen the 
cell I would have been far mofe comfortable than in the wooden box allotted to 
me, where there was no room to walk in, and where, for many days and nights, 
coiled under one blanket, I was to lie shivering in the cold winter air that ven- 
tilated my shell of bo.irds. 

* The narrow door was closed upon me by the officer of the guard. I had re- 
marked to him that General Grant was probably acting under some misappre- 
hension with reference to me. He replied that " General Grant did not go out 
of the usual way in the treatment of prisoners, and he supposed I was held as a 
.vyy/." I shuddered to find as he passed out that double guards were placed 
over mo ; in addition to the sentry a few paces off, at the sally-port, another be- 
in-^ placed immediately at my door. 1 heard him remark to a comrade that he 
had ''a spy in there whose neck he hoped would be soon broke.'' 

I ran over in my mind swiftly all my past life in prison and on parole. Surely 
there was nothing in it on which to hang the least charge against me, or ot 
which even the most ingenious conspiracy could avail itself, as long as I kept 
cool enough to cope with the machinations that evidently sought to take my life, 
either by a stroke of cunning, or by the torture of a prison unparalleled save i» 
those damp unhealthy cells of the Bastile, where the victim of despotism wa?^ 
left to die quite as surely as by the axe of the hangman. I quickly concluded 
that I was not held as a spy, but was designed as the victim of some malice in 
Washini-ton as yet unexplained, which was conveniently seekiiig my destruc- 
tion, and by cutting me off from the world and surrounding me with an air of 
mystery, was attempting to consummate it in dknce. 

It was a terrible thought to languish in a wooden boS like a dog — perhaps 
to die there in silence ! .For a moment I felt like turning upon my fju-e, and 
and aliandoniug all to despair. l>ut it was only for a momcat. 

The experiences of life are of but little use, unless one gathers in them the re- 
sources of resolution. . I had learned something from the past. 1 had recently 
prepared myself by reflection for whatever trials might aFait me. I had recov- 
ered my health on parole ; I had gained flesh and spirits; aad never in my life 
was I so thoroughly armed at all points for a test of my resolution. In ten 
minutes 1 had looked my situation in the face and thoroughly made up my 
mind how to act. If I thought or sulked in this place I would easily die. I 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. m) 

determined that my inlml should uot feed upoa itself; that I would find con- 
stant occupation for my hours; that 1 would invent trifles to kill time; that if 
I could not u.se my legs, I would jump up, toss my arms, do anytHiug that 
might serve for exercise under difiiculties. And then I would be constantly on 
the alert to efi'ect a communication with my friends to diiicovcr and defeat the 
enemy who was regpousible for this outrage upon me, and to fcreak. the mesh of 
malice in which my fate seemed now- to he so mysteriously woven. 

My first task was to get the permission of the provost-marshal to write to 
General Grant. I stated the circumstances of double protection in which I had 
come to l''ortres3 oMouroe — that of a parole granted by the Secretary of the Navy, 
and that of an official order under which I had reported ; I desired to know^ 
•why the faith of the authorities implied in these steps had not been kept with 
me; I a.skcd fiimply what charges liad been made against me. Ihe letter wa,< 
never noticed. 

And here I may say that I wrote three letters to the sauie efieet to General 
Grant in one week. Not a word of reply. I was again to learn the lesson that 
the Yankee authorities have the same convenience as that of the Bastile — that 
is to keep the prisoner in profound ignorance of his fate, and leave him a prey 
to imagination. • 

It was a bitter reflection what a return 1 had obtained for my own rigid ■ and 
punctilious observance of faith with the enemy. When first captured and taken 
t6 Boston, I was invited to escape, and it was suggested to me i hat on a tech- 
nical construction of my parole to go to Boston, I was free when the vessel 
touched the wharf. I put the suggestion from me as an unwortlry one, and sur- 
rendered myself to the United States 3Iarshal. The thanks 1 got for it was 
that he attempted to put me in the common jail. Again, while on parole in 
the streets of Boston, there were men who said to me " put yourself in our 
hands, and in twelve hours you will be safe in Canada; we want yo]i to go to 
England, and carry out your designs, and you have only to Aame what amount 
of 'money you will need and it is yours." I answered these Boston sympathi- 
zers : " You do uot know how we in the South regard matters of personal 
luinour. Unless I can g© back to llichmond with clean hands, I will never return 
there." The thanks I got for this was three months in Fort Warren. Again 
put on parole, I had conducted myself, as Secretary "Welles admitted to one of 
my friends, in an' unexceptionable manoer, and I had never provoked the re- 
mark of a licwapapor, or dra^rii the attention of an ofiicial iu three months of 
eemparativc liberty. My reward for such observance of the faith I had pledged 



130 OBSERVATIONS IN. THE NORTH. 

in my parole oi' honour, was tliat without any known charge?, without explana- 
tion, and in what I supposed was the last stage of my exchange, I was caught 
ijp by a felegvaphic dispatch, and doomed to a fate little short of death — that of 
close and solitary confiuement in a space where there was not room to take two 
■?teps ! 

But I was determined not to chew the cud. I was but a few hours in my 
narrow prison — my little stall of boards — before I had divided off the waking 
hours of the day into employments, petty enough, but which might serve to 
kill time by method. I had a needle and thread in my valise, and might sew. 
f had a knife, and might whittle. I had a book which had been thumbed and 
-tudied over, l»ut I might find a pastime, and an exercise for the lungs in read- 
ing it aloud. I had the stump of a pencil and some loose paper, and I might 
rimuse mj'self with making rebusses, puzzles, and perhaps poetry. But I had 
made no calculation for the dark hours of the nioht, and did not inia"iue how 
iittle of these could be appropriated to sleep ; for the temperature of the day 
iiS'orded me no imagination of the sufferings I was to endure, shivering in the 
oold air of the night that swept through my frail tenement, catching sleep on 
my eyelids for five minutes at a time, and dreaming horrible dreams of nuked 
■:md shelterlc-s mi-ery. ^ 

.... Days, weeks T passed in solitary confinement, without a svord of com- 
munication from human lips. Part of this time, my sufferings were iutense. 
1' ly limbs were cramped in the narrow limits of my prison ; they were pierced 
\di]\ cold } I ccnild not stand on my feet without a feeling of giddiness. 

I never .shnll forget the bitter, bitter cold of Christmas week. ' In shivering 
"wakefulness during the long hours of the niii;ht, I could hear the guard trotting 
ap and down before my door, with the thud of his heavy accoutrements, keep- 
ing company with his double-quick in the freezing atmosphere. It was some 
night in the lasf^of December, when the officer .of the guard- opened the door, 
3io doubt curious to see the condition of his prisoner since three weeks of s<?li- 
fcry confinement. I was huddled under a blanket, with some extra articles of 
•'ress strewn over it. The officer was not without humanity, for he seemed to 
&e shocked at my condition. "Well," he said, ''a man don't know what he 
can stand I I am a stronger man than you, and I *am certain that I could not 
live in this place two weeks." He said, " I will remonstrate Vith Colonel Kob- 
trts, and see if you can't be made more comfortable." He promised to send 
the surgeon of the fort to see me next day. The surgeon canie, examined my 



OBSERVATIOxVS IN THE NORTH. ' lv;| 

ceuditioD, and declared tliat he felt bound for liuiuane and sanitary reasons t« 
advise a change for me, both of quarters and of discipline, and would try to g^r 
me permission to walk an hour each day under guard. I never heard a worvi 
more from these officers; I never saw them again ; I suppose that if they di<J 
make the appeal they promised, it was rebufted. I had reqHcsted them if they 
could le^rif anything of my sentence to request in my behalf that it might be 
commuted to any sort of penal labour — the Dry Tortugas, the penitentiary — 
auythiijg was preferable to the crouching shivering, solitary confinement in z 
wooden box I Nothing came of this request. I was left in eileijce; alone with 
my imagination. , 



It was in the early part of January, 180"» — I cannot recoiiect the day of tlue 
month^tliat peering through a crack in my wooden box, I was surprised to s«£ 
General Butler driving out of the sally-port in an open barouche. It wati a 
glimpse of hope, for I had tuk<m in it a sudden conception, and had made a 
quick calculation ot probabilities. I instantly judged that General Butler hnii 
rrturned from Wilmington, and was on his way to the Richmond lines. Ascrib- 
ing my incarceration to some influence at Washington, and having obtained, 
some time before, an intimation that a quarrel was existing between General 
Butler and^thc War Department, and that he and Stanton were acting in op- 
posite directions, the idea at oece came into my mind that that quarrel mighi 
be turned to my benefit, and that my prompt and adroit use of it might pro\;:^- 
bly open my way to liberty. 

I took a scrap of paper on my knee, and instantly wrote to General Butlor, 
reminding him of his promise to send me through his lines, and suggesting ihvA 
his authority in this matter had been superseded and defied in a manner ine:*- 
plicable to me. I directed the note to " Headquarters Army of the Jameo,'' 
and handed it to the corporal of the guard. He kept it out about two hou.r;)^ 
and then returned it to me, saying the officer of the day would not allow it lo 
pass. I assumed an air of greafc indignation ; I said, ** I'd let General Butler 
know how communications addre.«.><ed to him on official business were treated by 
subordinates ;" I demanded that I should see the provost-marshal instantly 
about what was quite as much an act of disrespect to General Butler as of out- 
rage to myself. The provost-marshal was sick.. But his ai^ilstant came, and :p- 
9 •- 



J22 OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

stantly pacified mc by takiug the letter, and promibing Lbat < rcncral Butler 
should have it ia the next twelve liours. 

In that Icttel' 1 had got in ray 1 and the clew to undo the web of malice that 
had bcea woven around me 



• £. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

A Week is tiii; Ya.s ;<?.?. Ltnrs around Rickmonb. — The Pleasure Party on the "RiFer 
<5ueen." — General Butler Aroused and Profane. — Yankee "Vrar Correspondents" at Headquar- 
ters. — Material of the Yankee Army: Negro Soldiers. — I'ankee Officers on "Subjugation." — 
<}eneral Butler's Tribute to General Lee. — IIow I Made a Narrow Escape to Richmond. 

There is little ceremony in tte liberation of a prisoner. Two days after mj 
note to General Uutler, the provost-marshal opens the door, and tells me to 
*• pack my things in ten minutes." He does not tell me why ; he does not 
state where I am going ; the old mystery of the Bastile is kept up to the last 
moment. Bat I do not ask any questions this time; for I know very well that 
General Butler is taking action over the heads of Grant and of his master at 
Washington, and that it is my policy to keep a discreet silence. 

A sergeunt marches up to take me in custody. As T step into the open air 
my cramped limbs tremble under me, and I stagger, giddy but pleasantly be- 
wildered, towards the wharf. There was lying General Butler's staff-boat, " the 
River Queen," gay with flags and streamei^; in its upper saloon groups of gaily 
dre'jsed ladies, among them the wife and daughter of General B., on a pleasant 
jaunt to the front, for the benefit, as I afterwards learned, of a party of Eng- 
lish naval officers, whose lustrous uniforms ad.ded to the picturesqueness of the 
scene. As I approached this garish boat, on which I was told I would oe taken 
under guard to General Butler's headquarters, I found groups of women at the 
windov^s of the saloon taking that cool survey of me, some with the assistance 
of lorgnette-, that only the impertinent curiosity of Tankees could bestow. I 
had always made it a point when a prisoner," to put on the best appearance be- 
rbie the enemies of my country. Before I had left the fort I had found time 
to cleanse my face and hands, and to dress myself with the mo.9t scrupulous 
care ; and I thought I detected in the curiosity, which proposed to feast itself 
on the spectacle of a rebel prisoner, a shade of disappointment that there were 
no appendages of interest to me in the way of rags or cl^iuts. 



124 OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

I held myself carefully aloof from the company on the boat. Several of the 
English officers on board seemed to make it a point to walk Tue^x where I waa 
standing; and I could plainly see sympathy and interest in tteor looks despite 
the restraints of the Yankee company whose guests they were. There was no 
breach of manners in what they did ; although I could plainly read in their eyes 
a feeling which made me proud and flushed to know that ii rivtltetcd an admi- 
ration for my country, testified to a plain, solitary man, who stood under guard 
in a throng of Yankee pleasure-seekers — a stark figure of a prisoner, in iht 
midst of the gilt and revelry of his enemy. 



My second interview with General Butler did not last three ajinates. It was 
refreshingly brief. Arrived at his headquarters, I was iislicred by the pro- 
vost-marshal into his presence. 

''Sir," said General Butler, " I understand you have been put in confine- 
ment since I paroled you and promised to send you through mj lines. I hc.d 
nothing to do with it, sir. iCead this." 

He handed me a paper. It was a telegraphic dispatch /r6.'?i .S'eeretrr^'/ Stan- 
Ion to General Grant, ordering me into close confinement. The mystery wa,- 
revealed ; I saw the demon at the bottom of it; I had calciil'aied aright my ap- 
peal to General Butler as my only hope of escape. 

I handed the paper back to General Butler. He twirled it between hi? 
thumb and forefinger. "By G — I don't know what this means. I don't care 
what it means. I believe, Mr. Pollard, I promised to send yoa to Richmond/' 

"You did, Geneial Butler." 

" By G — , sir, you shall go. I would send you througli my' lines to-morrovf^ 
But I sent a flag-of-truce down the road the other day, and soiofc uf your people 
fired upon it. They must hijve been d — d drunk." 

He rose from his chair as a signal for the conclusion of the iiD'.crview. "8k./' 
he said, "I always keep my word, alike to friend and foe. I ksow ^hope de-' 
ferred maketh the heart sick ;' and you may yet be detained Lcre a week for 
Colonel Mulford's flag-of-truce, but make up your mind that --o you shall to 
Richmond." 

I replied that his a^urance completely satisfied me. I <eoiijcl soarcely^sup- 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. lor, 

press ray feoiizig, at the prospect before me. I would defeat Stanton's plot; I 
would override lim and get back to Kichraond. But to effect this, I saw the 
value of sikncr.^ md the paramount necessity of doing or saying nothing to draw 
the attention of the Washington authorities upon rae, and to bring to close 
<|uarters a <juarr^.! through which my hope was to slip unperceiyed. 



I was turned over by the provost-marshal to the staff-quarterm(ist<;r, who as- 
•signed me a bunk and invited me to his mess. This officer — Lieut. Merrill — 
was both civil and kind. But there were some civilities in store for me that I 
had not expect-:!. 

I had scarcely entered the quartermaster's hut when an orderly came in with • 
:f.'full file of New York papers, which he handed me, accompanied by a card. 
on which was written " Compliments of James B. Chadwick, New York Tri- 
bune." In a few minutes after this surprise another card was handed me, on 
which there was this prolix designation : " S. Cadwallader, Correspondent-in- 
Ohief New York Herald, General Grant's Headquarters, Armies of the United 
States." Presently a fat gentleman, in a heavy suit of quadrangular stripes, 
who introduced himself as another correspondent of the Herald, invited me to 
a large double h'atj assigned to the representatives of the press permitted to re- 
side at headquarters. 

I found here about a dozen ''war correspondents" of different Northern pa- 
pers in an atmosphere of tobacco smoke. There were liquors, nuts and raisins 
on the table ; excellent Havannas, wJ lihitimi ; and a retinue of black servants 
in attendance — for the Yankee " war correspondent " is an important personage 
at headquarters, keeps- his horse and seryant, and recei^jes a salary scarcely less 
than the pay of a Major-Glencral. I was treated with abundant hospitality. 
i5ut I must HOC venture to describe the festive relaxation of my polite enter- 
tainers; for the fat correspondent of the Herald, who treated the company t» 
aeveral scenes and reminiscences of his on the comic stage, seemed to be ner- 
vously afraid that I was " taking notes," and made me promise, in the most sol- 
<;mn manner, "not to put him in the Richmond Examiner." ' 

There wa#one piece of gentlemanly delicacy in a passage of general conver- 
sation of the coropany that I could not fail to appreciate, and should not neglect 



12S OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

tomention. Two of the compauy were engaged in qiilte au animated discus- 
sion of General Butler's nierit;?, when one of theta got upon the slavery ques- 
tion. Mr. Chadwick, the representative of the Trihutv', immediately interfarred, 
and said : "Perhaps such conversation is not pleasant to Mr. Pollard ; let us 
change the subject." No one but a gentleman could have shown such a ready 
sense of propriety. 

I parted from n^y cutcrtalnevs with many protestations of their desire "to see 
Bie in Richmond," and the rather dubious declaration that if the Yankees got 
there I would certainly be <' looked up." "^ , 



Six day's in the Yankee lines ; and I have learned some things which wilS 
bear repetitiolfi. 

I wish every man in the South could see for himself the extent of the dete- 
rioration of the material of the Yankee army. He would find in this view an 
encouragement for the Confederacy that had not before entered his mind ; and 
when he saw on what legs the war is now supported in the North, he could 
readily understand the peculiar difficulties of Y'^ankec recruiting, and how they 
are verging to the last necessity. 

I had an interesting occasion of observation within the Yankee lines around 
Richmond; I had had for several months an insight into the recruiting offices, 
with which the City Park, in New Y^'ork, is shingled ; I had, on different occa- 
sions, had the freedom of the city of Boston, which is the great entrepot — 
much more so than New Y'ork — of foreign enlistments ; and when I declare to 
the reader that the proportion of citizens of the United States in the Y''ank"ep 
army has fallen to about one-fifth of it, and these the worst and nastiest 
"' scabs " of Northern cities, he may be sure I am not amusing him with ex- 
travagant assertions, but giving him the results of careful and reliable infor- 
mation. 

Foreign enliatments, as is now well known, have got to be in the worst odour 
in Europe, and that source of supply of the Y'^ankee army may be said to have 
pretty thoroughly dried up. Negro soldiers are now at an immense premium at 
the North, an«J yet they arc obtained with the greatest difficulty. #1 saw a ne- 
gro in the hotel at Forti;ess Monroe who had escaped from Itiehmondj and 



OESEKVATIOSS IN THE NORTH. 127 

whom I had knowa iq a Maiu street restaurant; and he told me that he had do 
sooner put his foot on tlie passenger boat, which runs from \'arina to Washing- 
ton, than lie wa-s taken hold of by a pack of bounty agents, and that one Mas- 
sachusetts man offered, if he would go to Boston and enlist as his substitute, to 
give him §900 cash outside of the bounty. "Moses" couldn't see it. The 
" smart " negroes do not enlist. 

General Butler had much to tell me of his success in the experiment of negro 
soldiers. But outside the views of the negro question by General Butler and 
other Northern negrophilist.-, I have made my own observations. The most in- 
variable, and perhaps the luost important of these is, that the black soldiers in 
the Yankee array are mostly composed of the dregS of the negro race ; that of 
escaped slaves, those who enlist are generally nothing more than the ignorant 
and uncouth plantation '"scrubs,*' who can find no other employment; and that 
this black element in the armies of our enemy, if it is to be considered at all, 
may be taken a.<* almost beneath contempt. A Yankee officer told me that ne- 
gro' soldiers were found to have an animal abhorrence of the sight of blood; 
that in some charges they had been, as soldier* often are, pushed on blindly • 
but that if they once catch sight of mangled limbs and spirting blood, their 
imagination is at once shocked, and they arc utterly demoralized. 

To see, these miserable creatures in the lines about Richmond, standing up to 
their haunches in mud, and rolling their eyes like lost spirits, gives one a very 
curious idea of the material of the army which General Leo confronts. The 
white element of that army is only a degree better. T may say, that in all mv 
enforced intercourse for many months with privates in the Yankee army, I Kave 
never heard from them any sentiment of '• Union," any echo of articles in the 
newspapers, any expression of so-called '• patriotism;" their whole stoek of con- 
versation and employment, besides studies of obscenity, is to tell what they have 
made in bountie.-', and to count the days when their terms of enlistment wiU 
expire. If the veterans of the Confederacy arc not able to smash up sueh ma- 
terial, black and white, as the Yankee army now takes into its composition, they 
might as well give up th-jir occupation and go home in disgrace. The Confed- 
erate public can have no idea of the utter deterioration of this material since the 
campaign was opened in last May, J.t is such in the armies of the Potomac and 
the James, that 1 candidly believe if General Lee had good rea<5on to assume 
the aggressive, he could break their lines around Fachmon(l from one end to 
the other. 



J,gg OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

The fate of lliclimond, should t|he Yankee flag ever float over it, I am Hot left 
^ imagine. I had heard that fatte already decided in every Yankee circle of 
j|.i?cussion. But while within the lines of the enemy's armies around Ilich- 
7f>ond, I obtained an expression of the designs of those who, more than the pol- 
nlcians, are to give law to the conquered. 

It is possible that there may be some few fools who imagine that in Richmond, 
uader Yankee rule, they might go on in the old established routine of their 
l.ves, leaving politics alone. Never was delusion more fa!se or fatal. It is per- 
fectly agreed among the Yankees that if Richmond should ever fall under their 
domination, a test must be applied to it far more severe than has ever yet been 
eiiforced upon any portioa of the Southern people ; for it is this city which is 
regarded as the headquarters of th.e rebellion, and it is here whore the Northern 
grip is to strangle *• treason." It is certain that no one could breathe* in the 
ft'lViosphcre of Richmond unless he awallowed the oath of allegiance in its 
vilest form. If he Haved his property for a few days by that step, he would 
vet be uiven over to ultimate ruin. He would find Richmond inundated with 
lueu v,ho woifld be hi,> nuisters in everything; Yankees would keep the hotels, 
'•rublich the newspapers, sell the dry goods and " notions." ' lie would be turned 
Vift of all employment, unless he tnight get that of clerk or understrapper to 
,^oaie "go ahead" New Englander who wanted cheap help. Jle woufd be kept 
under constant survoiilunee, and at the mercy uf every enemy who might choose 
ici tell a lie about him to the Yankee provost marshal. Life would become in- 
toiei'able to him. Fiom Richmond to the farthest corner of Virginia he would 
Sad the places of himself and his countrymen usurped by the Yankee ; and 
even if he saved himself from the jail by oaths of allegiance, repetitions of the 
<Ad feudal " homage," or any other expedient of infamy, he would find himself 
^•gi-hed to the wall and regarded as an incumbrance and superfluity upon the 
e-Mth. ^ ' ■ 

I found more inshnictlon than enter t;iinraeiit in iho talk of the Yankee army 
aUout Richmond. 3 Lad access to mit-jy of its officers, who spoke of the war 
rtthout reserve. And this talk was aa unfiling ding-dong of what Yankee 
mterprise would do \u Virginia after its subjugation. Virginlians didn't know 
\i0w to cultivate the -mM ; the Yankees would give them a lesson ; the old es^ 
Utes would be cut ap into 100-acre farms to give every man a chance.. Some 
Lad new methods of raiding tobacco, as they had seen it done in the Connecticut 
YaUcv. Some thought the Valley of Virginia the most inviting country in the 
w:.iLl, and had picked out their places to settle there after the war. This talk 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 129 

Was not intended to be offensive; for jt seemed to be universally taken as aiatter 
of course that under Yankee rule, Virginia, by a very fair, logical conclusi&n. 
could be for nobody else but the Yankees, and that her former people were to 
be glad to sit at the feet of New England civilization. 



An officer on (ieneral Butler's staff told me that whatever denunciations of 
Confederates Butler might have indulged in, he had- a great admiration of Gen, 
Lee. lie related a singular story to illustrate it. He said that some time ago 
General Lee had exposed himself on a line of earthworks, withiu musket fire of 
one of Butler's regiments. Som<i of the officers thought the men who recog- 
nized him should have shot him. Butler said his soldiers had done right not to 
(ire on him — that he would think it " a crime against humanity to take the life 
of such a man as General Lee." Now this may have been affectation. But 
what must be the general estimation of the worth and virtues of the man, who 
could give occasion, even, to an affectation of this soi't from the lips of au 
euemy ! * 



On the lUth of January, it wiw known at the headquarters of the army of 
the James that General Butler had been relieved from all command, and ordered 
to repor^ at his home in Massachusetts, The news was a terrible surprise to 
me. The H;ig-of- truce under which T was to be exchangejphad not yet come up 
the river. Goueral Butler's authority was at an end; and I had reason to sus- 
pect that if in any vray it became known at Washington that I was en route foi' 
Bichniond — that it any application for instructions in my case was made to any 
new authority, the probability was I would be intercepted, and consigned again 
to the horrours of close and solitary iraprigt)nmcnt, A terrible anxiety was upon 
me. Biiit T saw at -once that my only hope was to conceal it. If the provost- 
marshal was to telegraph to "Washington for any instructions about me, the pro- 
hnbility was T was lost. I knew he. was but little aware of the circumstances 
of my case. T conceived at once the part I was to play. It was constantly to 
.'peak of my going to Richmond under the next flag of truce as a matter of 



130 OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. 

course; to avtid tlie least suggestion of jny conflict of authority in my casej 
to have nothing stirred ; to talk confidently of my intended departure as a thing 
already fully determined and settled in every respoct. Each morning at break- 
fast I made it a point to say, " Well, I suppose I will sup to-night at the Spots- 
wood." I promised the provost-marsBal to send him back from Richmond a 
bale of smoking tobacco. But while I thus spoke with the appearance of ea.y 
and good-natured confidence, my heart was gnawed by a terrible anxiety. I 
knew very well that my fate hung by a thread. 

My success was even beyond my expectations. Without the least ado, with- 
out question of any sort, I was on the morning of the 12th January informed 
that a flag-of-truce was in the river, politely and comfortably placed in an ambu- 
ance, and in one hour was at Boulware's landing on the boat that was to convey 
me to Richmond. I did not feci safe until the provost-marshal who had accom- 
panied me to the boat had taken his leave ; 'which he did very pleasantly, little 
dreaming that the prisoner he had put through so graciously was supposed by the 
authorities at Washington to be groaning in solitary confinement at Fortress 
Monroe.* 

How can I describe my feelings as thus narrowly escaped, as it were, from 
the very jaws of dest|uction, I stood once more beneath the flag of my coun- 
try, and saw lifted' into the evening sky the spires of llichmond ! That night 
I slept the sweet sleep of one returned to his home. And that night my heart 
long pent up with anxieties poured out, happily and reverently its gratitude t« 
God. 



*I arrived in Ptichmond the 12th of January. Some weeks afterwards I received by tbe 
flag-of-trucc mail a letter from a friend in Washington, addressad to me "in prison at Fortrets 
Monroe," and forwarded from there, giving an account of an interview at the War Department 
about my case. This letter was dated the >^!.rtecHth day of January. It said : 

" My Dear Friend: I have been here for two days, exerting myself to procure some amelio- 
ration ef your condition, \tMt utterly without success. Secretary Welles, a humane, benevolent 
man, and a thorough gentleman, expresses regret at your circumstances, but8a3's he has deliv- 
ered you over to the War Department, and has no control vphatever over your case. He very 
generously gave me permission to use his name in my interview with the Secretary of War, and 
to say he (Mr. Wells) had sent me to Mr. Stanton. I went to the Wiir office yesterday. Mr. 
Stanton has gone to Savannah, so that 1 had to see the Assistant Secretary, Mr. Dana. Al- 
though I was accompanied by , his manner to me was such as to forbid My cif/ain appeal' 

in<j to him. Indeed, he very proraptly and impenitiveJy toid uif nothing COULD BE PONE FOK 
vou." ' 

This news of Yankee determination to keep me in close and solitary confinement — to bt me 
rot in prison — I read, on the very day it was uttered, a free man in the street'^ of llichmond ! 



CHAPTER XX. 

SowE Rei'lkctions, — The Hope of the Confederacy. 

Februuri/ 20, 18G6. — Some wcek.s before th^ publicatioil of tliese pages, the 
writer returned to bis home in llichmond with a feeling of exultation in his 
bosom, and bringing with him the deliberate and firm conviction that in the af- 
fairs of the North there were elements of encouragement for the South such as 
no former period of the war had contained. He found this opinion, for some time, 
doubted by many of his countrymen, and but few of them wijliug to catch the 
■inspiration of any idea which lies be^'ond the immediate impressions of the hour. 
Nor is this altogether strange. It is true that the elements of encouragement 
referred to may not be appreciable in a hasty examination of the situation, or 
they may have been sunk out of tiie popular view, while it has been too much 
occupied with the superficial regard of reverses and mishaps to our arms. 

It is true that we have had a series of misfortunes and misadventures in the 
military field. Yet count these altogether since August last, and the sum of 
actual results, although in favour of the enemy, is not the least occasion to us 
for despair. Wc still cover the vitals of the Confedai'acy with powerful armies. 
The passage of the enemy through Georgia did not conquer that State. Hood's 
defeat in Tennessee leaves the situation in the Central West about what it was 
in 18G2, after the battle of Shiloh. The capture of the forts in the Bay of Mo- 
bile has not given that city to .the •enemy, or even given him a practicable water 
base for operations against it. The fall of Fort Fisher .simply closed the mouth 
of a river. The march of Sherman may, by a defeat at any stage short of 
Richmond, be brought to thorough naught j the whole country which he has 
overrun be re-opcncd and recovered, and nothing remain of his conquests but 
the narrow swath along the path of the invader. 

This is all of the dark side of the situation for us ; and when we estimate 
how much of it is to be attributed to the fact of incompetency on the part of 



.» 



132 OBSERVATIONS IN THE .SOUTH. 

our Generals, and how uiucli of it may yet be repaired or compensated by a 
cliange of commanders, and in that new era of military administration upon 
which we are now entering, when campaigns are no longer to be dictated and 
commands assigned by the caprice and obstinacy which have heretofore gov- 
erned all things in Ricljraond, we may well take courage for the future, and 
count the military disasters of the past as things very far from decisive results, 
and even, in any view, not past the reach x)f timely and vigorous remedies. 

We state all that there is to discourage us at present, when we make^the enu- 
meration of misfortunes to our arms since the midsummer of ]SG4. There is 
another ^ide to the account to be looked at before we strike the balance. There 
is a certain peculiar and extraordinary encouragement for us in the military af- 
fairs of the North at present, which we have not before experienced in the his- 
tory of the war, and which much overweighs all our recent misfortunes in the 
field. 

It was stated by the writer in other pages of this work that the public mind 
in the North was not disposed to carry the war beyond a certain point of dis- 
tress and necessity, which it had already nearly approached. When a uatioa 
lights for empire there is a limit to its endeavour very far from positive ex- 
haustion. When a na4,ion fights for existence, there is, there should be, no end 
to the struggle but in the extinction of all its resources. The North has made 
up its mind not to fight past certain necessities. The South should make up its 
mind to fight to the last necessity. The war has resolved itself into a simple 
(juestion of endurance on the part of the South; and the time has come when 
an exhibition of the spirit of the peo;»le in that respect is more importiint than 
a victory in the field. 

The Union sentiment id the North is a curious and interesting study after 
four years of war. There is no candid man in the North but will tell you 
that that sentiment has dexjlined since the commencement of the contest; be- 
cause, as the war hag progresed, the realization of the Union '" as it was " and 
the restoration of the former order of things have become more and more iixi- 
possible to the hopes and views of the intelligent. But whatever the esplana- 
lion of this loss of fervour in the Yankee mind, one hasj only to go through the 
North at this present time and mix with the people, to discover that, whatever 
may be the rallying cries of parties and the rhetoric of the newspapers, "the 
Union " has fast failed from its first estimation as the indispensable thing of the 
Yankee, his sinv qu'tnon in the war, to the condition of a mere preference in 
the popular mind— a preference. whicli, so far from its being impc^ssible to over- 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. loo 

come, is already weak and lialting at the prosect of furtlicr endurance on the 
|Mirt of the South.*- 

The dreaded necessity of a conscription must now soon be upon the North. 
To this necessity, to a repetition of this necessity, when the South, by her en- 
durance, forces her enemy, she accomplishes arguments against the war more 
effective in the present disposition of the Yankee mind than any which the ex- 
periences of the wai' have ever j-et afforded. There are already signs of the 
hunger for peace in the North, such as have never yet been exhibited. It is in 
these symptoms of a declining war; in the embarrassments and distress of a 
Yankee conscription ; in the new value given to the simple quality of endurance 
on the part of the South, that our people may discover an encouragement which 
they never had before in the history of their great contest. 

No one can doubt that the South has yet great capabilities of endurance : the 
question is merely that of the disposition of the people to exert them, in good 
faith, and with a firm purpose. There has never yet been any real scarcity of 
subsistence in the South, although our resources in this respect have been mis- 
managed. There has not been a year since the commencement of the war in 
which there has not been an actual surjilns of production in the South. Our 
scarcity of men and resources are, alike, unreal. Our armies can yet be doubled 
by the mere reclamation of absentees in a new era of military discipline, far 
more important than any enlargement of paper legislation. Our resources of 



■^ I have found among men in the North who are not fanatical a, very general admission that 
the reconstruction of the old Union i.s a Utopia. They give this opinion : that the so-called 
Union sentiment may be resolved into a desire for the maintenanca of an American prestige 
and the better cultivation of material interests ; and that whenever the Northern people are 
convinced that what is left to be realized of these objects is only to be accomplished by some 
sort of leaguq between the North and the South — that this is the only pcs.nble remnant of the 
lankee desire, they will accept it as such ; and that in the .'<cttlement of this conviction, the 
^eat Question of Peace is logically destined to fiad its ultimate solution. I add here my own 
-ipinion: that the North will take this conviction at some stage of the war very far from the 
last extremity to which it may be fought out. There seems to be a well-determined conclusion 
in the intelligent Yankee mind, that if the South should obtain such military successes a« 
[♦bould put her in a position in which sho was not likely to accommodate the North with any 
icfigues or treaties to preserve the remnant of old interests in the Union, and to insist upon a. 
..-.evere independence without any such connections whatever, that thbn the South would eue- 
reed to the prestige and prosperity of the old government, and the North be utterly ruined. It 
li thus that I am persuaded that the North will never fight this war to an extremity, or beyond 
ihfit certain stage of .success or certain exhibition of resolution on the part of the South which 
•will give occasion for the development of those opinions to which I have referred. 



13 J. OBSERVATIONS Ilf THE NORTH. 

conscriptioa ia three millions of slaves are yet untouched. Everywhere the 
difficulty is that of mismanagement and neglect, not that of exhaustion. Such 
a difficulty is only accidental ; it disappears when the spirit of the people is 
thoroughly aroused, and acts with decision. The safety of the South is brought 
to the simple problem of the public resolution ; there is no other uncertainty ; 
there is no other demand. There is nothing else of fear but on this single poiat; 
and there is nothing else of hope but on it alone. 

The writer does not propose to attempt here any determination of the ques- 
tion of pnttiiiij arms in the hands of the slaves, or any opinion as to how more 
than three millions of blacks may best be used in our military organizations. 
But their use in this respect, as a resource in reserve, has its value and its in-, 
terest; and these we may regard Ayithout the incumbrance of details, or seeking 
to determine what should be the precise employment or status of the negro iu 
the armies of the Confederacy. 

In the first American war for independence — that of the Colonies — Edmund 
Burke then pointed to the black man as the military ally of his master. He 
used a language then to the British Abolitionists, which, after the lapse of nearly 
a century, we may repeat to-day, almost word for word, to our enemy : 

'* With regard," said he, " to the high aristocratic spirit of Virginia and the 
Southern colonies, it has Been proposed, I know, to reduce it by declaring a 
'2:eneral enfranchisement of their slaves. This project has had its advocates and 
panegyrists; yet I never could argue myself into any opinion of it. Slaves are 
often much attached to their masters. A general wild oifer of liberty would 
not always be accepted. History furnishes few instances of it. It is sometimes 
as hard to persuade slaves to be free as it is to compel freemen to be slaves ; 
and in this auspicious scheme we should have both these pleasing tasks on our 
hands at once. But when we talk of enfranchisement, do we not perceive that 
the American master may enfranchise too, and arm' servile hands in dftfence of 
freedom? A measure to which other people have had recourse more than once, 
and not without success, in a desperate situation of their affiiirs. * Slaves as 
these unfortunate black people are, and dull as all men are from slavery, must 
they not a little suspect the offer of freedom from that very nation which has 
sold them to their present masters?" 

If the negro is servicealolc at all as a soldier, he will rather be so under the 
care and direction and inspiration of a master than as the ally of the Yankee. 
The South can give him officers who understand him better than those of the 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE NORTH. ' 135 

eaenay can ; and she can offer him indiiceuicnts to courage and good seryice far 
more valuable in his eyes than the nominal, wretched freedom of a Yankee He- 
lot. The precise position of the negro in the armies of the Confederacy is a 
matter of detail — a detail which belongs, as we believe, to a remote necessity. 
Yet it is encouraging that wc have a resource of ausiliari^, no matter if used 
in the meanest employment of the army, and that with it we can put a weight 
in the scale of the war that the enemy has not yet felt. 

But it may be but little necessary to look to extreme necessities, if we are 
only resolved to cope with those already upon us, which in a few months may be 
decisive. I>o those men who take our defeat and ruin as a foregone conclusion 
•reflect that we have six hundred thousand white men in the Confederacy capa- 
ble of bearing arms I Do they know that, despite the shortcomings of conscrin- 
tion, and despite that wretched mismanagement which has* wormed holes into 
everything, and made our army a sieve, our force? ea?t of the Mississiopi river 
to-day number more than one hundred and thirty thousand men, and are. at the 
lowest < estimate, more than three-fourths of the aggregate force of the enemy 
actually under arfus I Did they hear President Davis say in his recent speech 
at the African Church how Kossuth had been so weak as to abandon the cause 
of Hungary with an army of (h'rl)/ tlimtnand men in the field ! And are we' 
ready to tarni.>h pur reputation, and hand ourselves down to the damnation of 
history, by surrendering to an enemy, with an army on our side and actually in 
the field more numerous than those wuich have made the most brilliant pages in 
- European history : an army more numerous thaa that with which Xapoleon 
achieved his reputation; an army standing among its homesteads; an army in 
which eacU individual man is superiour in every martial quality to each individ- 
ual man in the ranks of the invader, and reared with ideas of independence, and 
in the habits of command ! The disgrace of such a ^ surrender would have no 
parallel in history. If the cause of the Confederacy is lost, it is lost by weak 
despair; by the cowardice of suicide; by the distress of weak minds. It can- 
not, CANNOT *be lost, if the spirit of the people rallies; if dauntless resolution 
and renewed energy are put against the small and decreasing advantages of "the 
enemy in other respects. Wc are very far from the historical necessity of sub- 
jugation. We are at any time near the catastrophe of a panic. 

In the face of existing resources; with the promise of a' new dawn in the ad- 
ministration of our military afiairs; with the stirring inspirations of the recent 
lessons we have had of the fcH designs of the enemy to require from us nothing 
short of the unc^aditionaj submission of the vaaquished; with the authorita- 



136 OBSERVATIONS IX THE NORTH. 

^'ive definition of the word "Subjugation" fresli from the ogrcish lips of the 
Washington Oracle there never was a time less fit to turn our backs upon occa- 
sion, and write " Despair ". on the banners of the Confederacy. 

Let us hope that the period of re-animation thus invoked will come ;^ that the 
resolution of the people will rise with occasion; that the public spirit will plume 
itself again for the contest. It is in such revival of the war; in such assurance 
of the determination ef the people of the South to accept new tests of endu- 
ranee that the enemy will feel a dissuasion from the prosecution of hostilities 
against which all his recent sensatioHS of military success will weigh as dust in 
the balance. 

The Confederacy may commit suicide ; -but it will do so when the message oi' 
a new hope is on wings to save it. There is somewhere a story of a wretched 
prisoner visited by^he Devil to tempt him to suicide. He was told there was 
BO hope for him; he was urged to end his misery. A step was heard descend- 
ing to his cell, as the wretched man held the knife at his heart. ''Quick/' said 
the Devilj " it is the step of the executioner." The knife vras plunged into 
the bosom ; and as the eyes of this victim of cowardly despah- swam in death, 
he saw before them the King's pardon held out to him — knew too late that the 
'step he had heard was of one bringing the message of liberty. 



10 



[m^ 



APPENDIX 



CIIIIIIESI'IIMIEMI «.\ THE SCBJEOT OF 511 EXCIIIIE. 

Hon. Robert Oithl, Agent of Exchuivj' of J 'i- in overt: 

Sm : 1 v>-as «ent through the Federal lines around llichmond. to uiake my exchange 
here, under the direct permissioa of General Butler, CommissioQer of Exchange. He 
gave me this permission in a. very kind manner, not taking any parole whatever from 
me, not limitinci, ray exchange to any particular person, but suggesting that I should 
use my best efforts to obtain tj^c cxchai);4C of Mr. Richardson, correspondent of the N'. 
V. Tribune, and, failing to do this, should have recourse to whatever fair eeiulvalent un- 
der the cartel was practicable. In this matter, General IJutler treated rao, I must ad- 
mit, very generously ; he required no p;>.rolc from nie: he laid no obligation upon me. 
.13 to the exchange of Mr. Richardson, or any particular individual for myself, which, 
of course, would have been committed to writing, had I come to Riciiinond on this or 
tny other special conditions. 

When I ;:)t to the ring-of-trucc boat, I was told by Lieutenant-Colonel Mulford, Ai-t- 
iau' Commissioner, that his understanding was that my exchange was limited to Mi* 
Richardson. I told him that no such condition was imposed upon me by General But- 
ler, or any other person; that I felt myself, alike, bound in honour and impelled Uy 
sympathy to do all I could to get the exchange of Mr. Richardson, but that, failing 
10 do this, no obligation remained upon me other than to send back fu equivalent un- 

\ir the CRrtel. Colonel Mulford then remarked that if Mr. Richardson tvts r.ot.5entv 

i 



14,0 . APPENDIX. 

back, I mifibt communicate with him further on 'the subject; 'which 1 promised to do, 
lOnsideriDg him to have misunderstood the circumstances of my case. 

Although Mr. Ptichardson is not within the conditions of any parole exacted from me, 
J et I am .anxious to observe the slightest unwritten obligation of honour, and deter- 
mined to perform in the fullest manner my promise to General Butler, to do all I can 
to obtain his exchange, before having recourse to any other equivalent. Further than 
this there is no obligation whatever upon me. 

But it is not only on account of my promise, as explained above, that I ask of yen 
the concession of Mr. Richardson's exchange for myself, but because I have been deeply 
moved by .1 just and natural sympathy in his case. It is true that he is an attache of 
the New York Tribune. That I have been assured by his friends was merely a profes- 
sional and very subordyiate connection, as he neither controls its columns, nor is knovi-n 
as a politician. 1 truly believe that this unhappy man has suffered penalties whieb 
have given him the strongest claim I have ever yet heard of, on the part of any Fede- 
ral prisoner, upon tlie humanity of this Government. He has been more than eighteen 
months a prisoner. I learned in the North that while he had been in this long cap- 
tivity, his wife had died — insane I was told ; then his child had died!; and thus his 
family h.ad gone to the grave, while he lingered in prison. Why not let this miserable 
man go ? It is possible that you may suppose that, because many and repeated appli- 
cations have been made for Mr. Richardson's exchange, that his Government attaches 
peculiar importance to him, and that by his further detention, you may force the e» 
change of other citizen prisoners. Permit me to suggest, Sir, very respectfully, that 
this view is extravagant, as Mr. Richardson has no other personal importance than that 
of a newsp.aper correspoAdent ; and that the number of applications for his exchange 
has been explained to me on account of the sympathy of friends moved by his long im- 
prisonment, iuid the deep and peculiar affiictious in his family. 

Will you plea-e, ^ir, irive me an early reply to this application for Mr. Richardson's 
exchange ; as, in the event of your i-efusal, I shall consider it my duty to take it up to 
the Secretary of War, and, he refusing, then to the President, ss the last re^iort of au- 
tbority in the matter. 

I am, Sir, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

EDW'D A. POLLARD. 
) 



APPENDIX. l^j 

[Fndorsed.J 

.lAviARy IS, 1865. 
RespcctfulTy rdurncd to Mr, rollurd. 

I am compelled by a sense of duty to decline the propOEC'l exchange. I have al- 
ready refused to exchange Richardson for a half-dozen different named parties. It 
would b.e unjust to them, if a proposal heretofore declined were aciepted now. We 
have all along hold that the arrest and detention of non-combatant3 should be deter- 
mined by rule, ancT that the principle of exchange, man for man, slionM not be applied 
to them. And furtlier, that whenever the fortune? of war throw a prominent yankco 
in our hands, we should hold him for the purpose of forcing the United States authori- 
ties into some just rule as to the treatment of noo-combaLant'?. 

" P.O. OULD-, 
Ae;*>Qt of Exchange. 



Hjcemcnb, Ya., January 22, 18G3. 

Jfon. Robert Ould, Agent of E^chan>/e of Friisoncrs. 

Sir : I have just this morning had returned to me from your ofilce my application for 
Mr. Richardson's exchange, endorsed to the eifcct that it was declined. Since I sent in 
this application, 1 learoed, and so stated to you, that Mr. Rich-ardson had escaped from 
prison, and reached his home in the North ; although you make no allusion to this m 
the endorsement referred to. It is, therefore, unnecessary for me to carry up this ap- 
plication, on Mr. iJichardsou's account, to the Secretary War, or to pr^ps it further. 

When I stated to you the fact of the escape of Mr. Richardson (to whose person you 
appeared tp attach a peculiar importance), you promised that some other Federal pris- 
oner should be released on my account, and expressly said that " I might give mysoii 
no further ^easiness on the subject of my exchange." 

I have to ask that you will perform what you promised, and what in due to me in thic- 
matter, £ft early as possible; and that you will communicate this letter and enclosures 
to Lt. Col. Mulford, Federal Commissioner of Exchange, for the very necessarr/ pi"-^"".^ 



142 



APPENDIX. 



of showing to him aad his GoTerameat that I have lionourahlj and fuilbfuUy pcr- 
forraed all that was required of rae. 

I am. Sir, s 

Your obedient servant, 

EDWD A. POLLARD. 



{^Endorsed. '\ 

R.espcctfully referred to Lt. CoL Ffulford, for the purpose of satisfying him and the 
United States authorities that Mr, Pollard used every effort to secure the release of Mr. 
Hidiardson. He •would have, perhaps, made further efforts, if Richardson had not es- 
caped. I Ecnd by the present flag, aad will send by the next, several citizen prisoner?, ^ 
any one of •B-hom jou Liay ccasider as an equivalent for Mr. Pollard. 

P.O. OULD, 
, Agent of Exchange. 



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